GIFT  OF 


DRY-FARMING 


CROSSING  WHEAT,  MINNESOTA  EXPERIMENT  STATION 
By  this  means  new  drought-resistant  wheats  can  be  developed 


DRY-FARMING: 

ITS  PRINCIPLES  AND  PRACTICE 


BY 

WILLIAM   MACDONALD 

M.S.AGR.,  SC.D.,  PH.D., 

FELLOW  OF  THE   ROYAL  SOCIETY   OP 

EDINBURGH  AND   THE   GEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY  OF  LONDON, 

DRY-LAND   AGRONOMIST,  TRANSVAAL  DEPARTMENT  OF   AGRICULTURE 

FOREIGN  VICE-PRESIDENT  AND  CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY 

FOR  THE  DRY-FARMING  CONGRESS 


flllttstratefc 


NEW  YORK 

THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1909 


^) 

A 


Copyright,  1909,  by 
THE  CENTURY  Co. 

Published  October,  1909 


THE   DE  VINNE   PRESS 


TO  ALL  THOSE 

WHO  BELIEVE  IN  THE  DRY-LANDS  OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES  AND  THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 

THIS  VOLUME  IS  RESPECTFULLY 

INSCRIBED 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

i  HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING   .....  3 

ii  SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE    .....  39 

in  THE  CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE      .  62 

iv  RAINFALL  AND  EVAPORATION      ....  87 

v  THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE    .....  106 

vi  THE  CAMPBELL  SYSTEM   ......  14-5 

vn  DRY-FARMING  ZONES       ......  163 

vin  DRY-LAND  CROPS        .......  207 

ix  THE  TRACTION-ENGINE  IN  DRY-FARMING  .  263 

x  DRY-LAND  EXPERIMENTS                              .  279 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Crossing  Wheat,  Minnesota  Experiment  Station 

Frontispiece 

A  Dry-farm  in  the  middle  of  the  desert,  Washington 

County,  Utah 7 

Their  First  Home  on  a  Dry-farm,  Juab  County,  Utah      14 

Sage-brush,  Desert  of  Utah 23 

Dry-land  Wheat  in  Utah 29 

Dry-land  Wheat,  U.  S.  Experiment  Dry-farm,  Chey- 
enne, Wyoming 36 

Dry-land  Brown  Grass,  Ij  tons  per  acre,  Forsyth, 

Montana 47 

Dry-land  Melons  grown  on  the  Bench  Lands  of  Mon- 
tana     58 

Eastern  Section  of  Wyoming,  near  Luther      ...      68 

A  Dry-farm  in  Northern  Wyoming 77 

Dry-land,  Gold-coin  Fall  Wheat,  55  bushels  per  acre      89 

ix 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Dry-farm  in  South  Africa,  showing  two  miles  of 


96 

Crop— Rotation  Plots,  Experiment  Station,  Edgeley, 

North  Dakota 101 

Fall  Wheat,  Turkey  Red,  Forsyth  Dry-farm,  Mon- 
tana   109 

A  Hay  and  Grain  Derrick 120 

A  Dry-farm  Home  near  Newcastle,  Wyoming     .     .    131 

Wheat  grown  continuously,  third  crop,  yield  4  bushels 

per  acre,  Forsyth  Dry-farm,  Montana       .     .     .    138 

Wheat  after  a  Moisture-saving  Fallow,  yield  25  bush- 
els per  acre,  Forsyth  Dry-farm,  Montana  .  .  138 

Barley  grown  continuously,  third  crop,  yield  6  bushels 

per  acre,  Forsyth  Dry-farm,  Montana       .     .     .    141 

Barley  after  a  Moisture-saving  Fallow,  yield  25  bush- 
els per  acre,  Forsyth  Dry-farm,  Montana  .  .  141 

Tall  Oat-grass  grown  on  the  Dry-farms  of  Montana    157 

Dry-farm  Squash,  Forsyth  Experiment  Station,  Mon- 
tana   169 

Harvesting  on  a  Wyoming  Dry-farm 180 

Two  Varieties  of  Dry-land  Wheat,  Red  Cross  and 
Turkey  Red,  U.  S.  Experiment  Station,  New- 
castle, Wyoming 190 

X 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Rotation  Plots  at  the  Edgeley  Experiment  Station, 

North  Dakota 197 

Rotation  Plots  at  the  Edgeley  Experiment  Station, 

North  Dakota 197 

The  Old  Method  and  the  New 201 

Dry-land  Oat-field  (Nebraska  White),  U.  S.  Experi- 
ment Station,  Newcastle,  Wyoming     ....    209 

Dry-land  Wheat  in  Shock,  Forsyth,  Montana      .     .    215 

Wheat-breeding  Nurseries,    Minnesota  Experiment 

Station 222 

Oats  grown  continuously,  third  crop,  yield  8  bushels 

per  acre,  Forsyth  Experiment  Station,  Montana    232 

Oats  after  a  Moisture-saving  Fallow,  yield  47  bushels 

per  acre,  Forsyth  Dry-farm,  Montana      .     .     .    232 

Dry-land  Wheat,  Christensen  Ranch,  Wyoming      .    245 
Harvesting  Dry-land  Potatoes 253 

A  Gasolene-traction  Plowing  Outfit  at  work  on  a 

3000-acre  farm  in  Montana 270 

The  Bates  Grubber  for  Clearing  Sage-brush    ...    270 

A  Small  Threshing  Outfit,  Bellefourche  Experiment 

Station,  South  Dakota 283 


XI 


PREFACE 

THE  aim  of  this  volume  is  to  set  forth  in 
a  plain  way  the  salient  facts  of  that  new 
branch  of  agricultural  science  which  is 
now  universally  known  as  dry-farming. 
The  writer  has  taken  special  care  to  deal 
only  with  the  data  obtained  by  reliable 
farmers,  experiment-station  workers,  to- 
gether with  the  results  of  his  own  experi- 
ence. It  is  therefore  hoped  that  this  little 
manual  will  form  a  safe  and  useful  guide 
to  those  thousands  of  settlers  who  are 
ceaselessly  pouring  into  the  great  semi- 
arid  plains  of  the  United  States  and 
Western  Canada  and  be  of  genuine  value 
as  well  to  all  those  interested  in  the  study 
and  practice  of  agriculture. 


Xlll 


PREFACE 

The  author  wishes  to  express  his  in- 
debtedness for  much  valuable  aid  to  the 
following:  Messrs.  E.  C.  Chilcott,  L.  J. 
Briggs,  and  William  M.  Jardine  of  the 
National  Department  of  Agriculture; 
Dr.  John  A.  Widtsoe,  Professor  Lewis 
A.  Merrill,  and  Professor  J.  C.  Hogen- 
son  of  Utah;  Professor  F.  B.  Linn" eld 
and  Professor  A.  Atkinson  of  Montana; 
Mr.  H.  W.  Campbell  of  Lincoln,  Ne- 
braska; Dr.  V.  T.  Cooke  of  Wyoming; 
Mr.  Gifford  Pinchot,  Chief  Forester, 
Washington,  D.  C.;  and  Professor  E. 
W.  Hilgard  of  California.  Nor  must  he 
fail  to  thank  Mr.  John  T.  Burns  of 
Colorado,  Secretary  to  the  Dry-Farming 
Congress,  for  much  kind  assistance. 

College  of  Agriculture 
University  of  Minnesota 
Minneapolis,  June  1,  1909. 


XIV 


DRY- FARMING 


DRY-FARMING 

CHAPTER  I 

HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

IN  the  study  of  dry-farming  we  are 
naturally  led  at  the  outset  to  ask  what 
is  the  real  meaning  of  the  term  "desert." 
The  dictionary  defines  it  as  "a  barren 
tract  incapable  of  supporting  popula- 
tion, as  the  vast  sand  plains  of  Asia  and 
Africa,  which  are  destitute  of  moisture 
and  vegetation."  Such  a  definition  is 
apt  to  mislead  us  unless  we  constantly 
bear  in  mind  that  what  is  now  a  desert 
region  may  be  transformed  in  a  few 
years  into  a  country  of  fertile  fields  ca- 
pable of  sustaining  a  large  population. 
The  most  striking  illustration  of  this  fact 
is  to  be  found  in  America.  Spread  out 
3 


DRY-FARMING 

an  old  map  of  the  United  States,  of  just 
forty  years  ago,  and  you  will  see  that  vast 
region  marked  "The  Great  American 
Desert"  which  stretched  from  the  Mis- 
souri to  the  Rockies.  What  has  hap- 
pened? In  the  space  of  a  single 
generation,  a  vast  army  of  settlers  has 
invaded  this  region  and  six  transconti- 
nental railroads1  bring  food  and  the 
daily  paper  to  the  farmer's  door.  Next 
turning  to  the  British  Empire  we  note 
that  great  desert  region  of  Australia  so 
quaintly  called  the  "Never-Never-Coun- 
try" on  the  fringe  of  which  farmers  even 
now  are  settling.  Lastly,  coming  to 
South  Africa,  we  can  mark  out  the 
Kalahari  Desert,  or,  as  it  is  termed  in  the 

1  On  the  10th  of  last  May  forty  years  had  elapsed 
since  the  rails  of  the  Union  Pacific  moving  westward  met 
the  rails  of  the  Central  Pacific  moving  eastward  at  Prom- 
ontory Point,  near  Ogden,  Utah,  and  the  first  transconti- 
nental railway  was  finished.  To-day  the  United  States 
possesses  230,000  miles  of  railroads,  or  forty-seven  per 
cent,  of  the  railway  system  of  the  whole  world. 

4 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

native  tongue,  the  "Great  Thirst  Coun- 
try," which  is  destined  in  our  own  lifetime 
to  become  the  happy  and  prosperous 
home  of  hundreds  of  energetic  colonists. 
The  lesson  of  all  this  is  plain.  In  our  dry 
or  desert  lands  we  possess  a  priceless  heri- 
tage; and  if  there  are  any  persons  who 
still  think  that  there  are  no  more  good 
farms  to  be  had,  you  may  remind  them  of 
that  fine  saying  of  Emerson:  "The  last 
lands  are  the  best  lands." 

Definition. 

The  term  "dry-farming,"  or,  as  some 
writers  prefer  to  say,  "dry-land  farm- 
ing," is  a  new  term  which  originated  in 
western  America.  In  Utah  and  some 
other  portions  of  the  Great  Basin  it  is 
common  to  speak  of  arid-farming.  Still 
another  term  is  "scientific  soil  culture," 
but  it  is  far  too  cumbersome  for  the  ordi- 
nary farmer  and  is  hardly  worth  discus- 
5 


DRY-FARMING 

sion.  For  the  sake  of  uniformity  it 
would  be  well  if  all  experiment  stations, 
farmers'  societies,  and  the  agricultural 
press  in  general  would  agree  to  speak  of 
"dry-farming"  and  "dry-land  agri- 
culture." Dry-farming  may  be  defined 
as  the  conservation  of  soil  moisture  dur- 
ing long  periods  of  dry  weather  by  means 
of  tillage,  together  with  the  growth  of 
drought-resistant  plants.  It  is  not,  of 
course,  farming  without  moisture,  for 
that  would  be  clearly  impossible.  The 
phrase  is  now  widely  and  loosely  applied 
to  a  particular  form  of  farming  in  all 
places  where  the  normal  rainfall  ranges 
from  zero  to  30  inches  per  annum.  That 
is  to  say,  a  farmer  in  a  certain  district  of 
Utah  might  speak  of  dry-farming  with  9 
inches  of  rain;  while  his  neighbor  in  eas- 
tern Nebraska  with  a  rainfall  of  29  inches 
might  equally  well  propose  to  conserve 
his  surplus  moisture  by  proper  tillage 
6 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

along  dry-farming  lines.  But  although 
the  fundamental  principles  would  be  the 
same,  the  details  of  the  two  operations 
would  be  vastly  different.  For  the  Utah 
farmer  would  require  to  accumulate  a 
two  years'  rainfall  to  produce  a  satisfac- 
tory crop;  whereas  his  more  fortunate 
brother  in  Nebraska  would  doubtless  de- 
mand an  annual  crop  from  such  an  abun- 
dant supply  of  moisture.  Nevertheless, 
the  Utah  farmer  has  one  distinct  advan- 
tage over  his  friend  in  Nebraska,  namely, 
that  his  rain  falls  during  the  winter 
months  when  evaporation  is  not  exces- 
sive; whereas  in  Nebraska  much  of  the 
rain  falls  during  the  hot  summer  months 
when  a  very  large  percentage  is  likely  to 
be  lost  through  evaporation. 

An  Ancient  Practice. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  dry-farming 
is  a  new  agricultural  practice.    But  it  is 
9 


DRY-FARMING 

not  so.  Even  in  America  the  farmers  of 
Utah  have  been  raising  crops  on  their 
dry -lands  with  a  rainfall  of  less  than  15 
inches  for  over  half  a  century.  More  than 
that:  dry-farming  has  been  practised 
since  the  dawn  of  civilization  in  Mesopo- 
tamia in  Egypt,  and  in  northwestern 
India.  And,  as  Hilgard  has  pointed  out, 
the  great  depth  of  soil  in  arid  regions  as 
compared  with  that  of  humid  climates 
undoubtedly  explains  largely  why  the 
ancient  agriculturists  could  remain  in 
the  same  country  for  thousands  of  years 
without  having  any  knowledge  of  scien- 
tific agriculture.  Most  farmers  are  aware 
of  the  fact  that  the  roots  of  plants  go  far 
deeper  in  dry  regions  than  they  do  in 
damp  climates.  Now  if  the  roots  of 
plants  can  penetrate  to  great  depth,  so 
surely  must  both  moisture  and  air.  It 
would  thus  seem  that  an  all-wise  Provi- 
dence had  amply  compensated  the  agri- 
10 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

culturist  of  the  semi-arid  region  by  giving 
him  in  many  parts  of  the  globe  great 
depth  of  soil  combined  with  an  almost 
inexhaustible  fertility.  Such  at  least  is 
the  lesson  of  history. 

'An  English  Agriculturist. 

The  starting-point  in  our  story  may 
be  said  to  be  the  publication  of  that 
agricultural  classic  entitled  "The  New 
Horse-Hoeing  Husbandry"  or  "An  Es- 
say on  the  Principles  of  Tillage  and 
Vegetation"  by  Jethro  Tull.  This  very  re- 
markable man,  who  was  born  in  the  year 
1674,  may  be  justly  called  the  "Father 
of  the  Experimental  Method  in  Agricul- 
ture." He  was  also  the  foremost 
preacher  of  his  time  of  the  gospel  of 
good  tillage.  The  great  value  of  TulFs 
writings  is  that  they  are  founded  not 
upon  mere  theory,  but  upon  actual  ex- 
periments in  the  field.  At  that  time,  in 
11 


DRY-FARMING 

the  south  of  Europe,  it  was  customary 
for  the  peasant  to  till  the  rows  between 
the  grape-vines.  This  practice  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  English  traveler,  who 
on  his  return  began  to  carry  out  the  same 
system  on  his  own  estate;  and  as  a  result 
of  his  studies  and  experiments^  he  pub- 
lished his  agricultural  classic  in  the  year 
1731.  TulFs  idea— which  was  that  by 
tillage  soils  might  be  constantly  and 
forever  re-invigorated  or  renewed — is 
summed  up  in  his  famous  epigram  "Til- 
lage is  Manure."  He  believed  that  the 
earth  was  the  true  and  the  sole  food  of 
the  plant;  and,  further,  that  the  plant 
feeds  and  grows  by  taking  in  minute  par- 
ticles of  soil.  And  since  these  particles 
are  thrown  off  from  the  surface  of  the 
soil  grains,  it  followed,  therefore,  that  the 
more  finely  the  soil  was  divided  the  more 
numerous  the  particles  and  the  more 
readily  the  plant  would  grow.  Although 
12 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

Tull's  theories  were  wrong,  his  practice 
has  been  followed  by  all  progressive  far- 
mers down  to  the  present  time.  We  now 
know  that  plants  do  not  absorb  particles 
of  earth,  but  take  in  food  in  solution. 
Consequently,  the  more  the  particles  of 
soil  are  broken  up  and  refined,  the  more 
plant  food  the  roots  can  absorb,  before 
Tull's  day,  seeds  were  sown  broadcast 
and  but  little  subsequent  tillage  was 
given.  He  recommended  a  more  thor- 
ough preparation  of  the  land.  He  ad- 
vised that  wheat,  oats,  and  other  crops  be 
planted  in  drills  to  admit  of  tillage  with 
a  horse-hoe.  He  devised  a  number  of 
tools  to  perform  this  work.  For  all  these 
things,  he  was  bitterly  abused  and  op- 
posed by  his  contemporaries.  His  system 
met  with  much  opposition  from  the  far- 
mers themselves.  In  the  third  and  fourth 
editions  of  this  work  the  editors  affirm 
that  "what  is  still  more  to  be  lamented, 
15 


DRY-FARMING 

these  people  [farmers]  are  so  mucH  at- 
tracted to  their  old  customs  that  they  are 
not  only  averse  to  alter  them  themselves, 
but  are  moreover  industrious  to  prevent 
others  from  succeeding,  who  attempt  to 
introduce  anything  new."  And  again: 
"The  Hoe-Plough  has  been  complained 
of  as  cumbersome  and  unwieldy  to  the 
horse  and  ploughman."  With  Tull  we 
see  the  beginning  of  modern  farm  ma- 
chinery; and  as  Professor  Bailey  re- 
marks: "Every  commonwealth  might 
well  raise  a  monument  to  the  memory  of 
Jethro  Tull."  He  died  in  the  year  1740. 

Dry-Farming  in  the  United  States. 

In  the  United  States,  the  history  of 
dry-farming  may  be  said  to  date  back 
to  1849,  the  year  of  the  gold  discovery  in 
California.  At  that  time  men  crossed 
from  the  Eastern  States,  passed  over  the 
deserts,  and  settled  along  the  Pacific 
16 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

Coast.  As  was  natural,  the  early  pio- 
neers in  the  State  of  California,  just  as 
in  South  Africa,  established  themselves 
along  the  sides  of  rivers ;  but  in  process  of 
time  they  became  bolder  and  began  to  till 
the  land  which  lay  away  from  the  water 
courses.  It  is  probable  that  the  first 
farming  on  dry  land  in  California  was 
done  in  connection  with  orchard  cultiva- 
tion. Several  years  ago  Hilgard  of 
California  called  attention  to  the  vast 
potentialities  of  the  arid  lands  of  the 
West  and  by  his  brilliant  researches  in 
the  laboratory  and  in  the  field  he  clearly 
proved  that  they  possess  certain  distinct 
advantages  over  the  more  humid  soils  of 
the  East.  He  has  always  laid  special 
stress  on  the  two  fundamental  principles 
of  dry-land  farming,  namely,  deep  initial 
preparation  of  the  ground,  and  constant 
shallow  after-cultivation.  He  has  also 
observed  that  in  selecting  virgin  land  for 
17 


DRY-FARMING 

dry-farming,  the  farmer  should  not  rest 
content  merely  with  the  chemical  analy- 
sis of  his  soil,  but  should  carefully  exam- 
ine the  nature  of  the  native  vegetation, 
and  probe  or  dig  to  a  depth  of  five  or  six 
feet  before  passing  final  judgment  on  the 
capability  of  such  ground  for  this  type  of 
farming.  Hilgard's  investigations  on 
the  subject  of  alkali  land  have  also  been 
of  the  greatest  value  to  the  farmers  of 
California. 

In  Nebraska. 

So  far  as  Nebraska  is  concerned,  the 
first  settlements  were  a  hopeless  failure, 
and  indeed  it  was  not  until  three  great 
tides  of  settlement  had  washed  this  State 
and  receded  in  disaster  that  success  was 
finally  won.  The  pioneers  of  Nebraska 
mostly  came  from  the  humid  regions  of 
the  Eastern  States  as  well  as  from 
Europe.  And  it  was  but  natural  that,  if 
18 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

they  had  any  knowledge  of  farming 
whatsoever,  it  was  of  farming  in  a  damp 
climate.  Thus  it  happened  that  both 
their  methods  and  their  seeds  were  totally 
unsuited  to  the  drought-stricken  plains 
of  the  Sunflower  State.  Nevertheless, 
the  best  of  the  colonists  remained,  and, 
being  taught  a  bitter  lesson  by  their  con- 
tinual losses,  finally  changed  their  meth- 
ods, adapted  themselves  to  their  arid 
surroundings,  and  so  eventually  estab- 
lished prosperous  homesteads.  The  in- 
fluence of  two  men  in  this  State  had  much 
to  do  with  concentrating  attention  upon 
the  possibilities  of  dry-land  farming. 
The  one,  Mr.  Hardy  W.  Campbell,  of 
Lincoln,  Nebraska,  has  introduced  what 
is  widely  known  as  the  "Campbell 
method"  of  cultivation  throughout  the 
Western  States.  The  other,  the  late  Mr. 
J.  Sterling  Morton,  the  father  of  Arbor 
Day,  was  for  some  time  Secretary  of 
19 


DRY-FARMING 

Agriculture.  Mr.  Morton  was  also  a 
Nebraska  pioneer,  and  it  is  to  his  influ- 
ence that  most  of  the  homesteads  of  that 
State  are  surrounded  by  groves  of  trees 
and,  furthermore,  that  Arbor  Day  has 
spread  throughout  the  whole  world.  The 
advantages  of  trees  in  the  conservation 
of  moisture  are  well  known  to  all  who 
have  farmed  on  the  wind-swept  prairies. 

In  Utah. 

Utah,  which  takes  its  name  from  the 
Indian  tribe  "Eutaw,"  is  a  land  of  snow- 
clad  mountains  and  desert  places.  Now 
although  the  agricultural  and  industrial 
development  of  this  important  State  has 
undoubtedly  been  due  to  the  practice  of 
irrigation1 — which  has  been  raised  to  a 
higher  art  here  than  anywhere  else  on  the 
American  Continent,  with  the  possible 

1  It  is  said  the  first  irrigation  canal  in  the  United  States 
was  built  in  Utah  in  the  year  1847. 

20 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

exception  of  California— it  is  also  of  in- 
terest to  note  that  the  colonists  of  Utah 
have  also  been  the  pioneers  in  dry-farm- 
ing. The  total  area  of  the  Mormon 
Commonwealth  is  82,190  square  miles; 
but  the  holdings  are  small;  the  average 
size  farm  being  about  forty  acres;  while 
five  and  ten  acres  are  not  uncommon. 
This,  of  course,  refers  to  farms  under 
irrigation.  At  the  present  moment,  how- 
ever, only  983  square  miles  are  irrigated, 
or  a  little  more  than  one  per  cent, 
of  the  total  land  of  the  State.  For  the 
sake  of  argument,  increase  the  irrigated 
area  to  10,000  square  miles,  and  yet  only 
a  trifle  more  than  twelve  per  cent,  of  the 
State  will  be  under  irrigation  farming, 
leaving  72,000  square  miles,  or  nearly 
45,000,000  acres  of  arid  lands.  The  soil 
of  these  millions  of  acres  is  fertile;  the 
rainfall  is  low;  they  are  covered  with 
sage-bush,  greasewood,  and  sunflowers; 
21 


DRY-FARMING 

there  is  no  possibility  of  irrigating  those 
deserts,  but  they  form  a  priceless  though 
as  yet  undeveloped  part  of  the  State,  in 
the  opinion  of  many  far-seeing  citizens. 
The  problem  of  arid-farming  in  Utah  is 
not  new.  Even  at  the  building  of  the  first 
canal  the  pioneers  wistfully  put  the 
question:  "What  can  be  done  with  the 
deserts?"  And  the  story  of  the  conquest 
of  these  deserts  is  a  romance  of  the  past 
half -century.  The  first  settlers  passed 
through  Emigration  Canyon  and  entered 
the  Valley  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  on 
July  24,  1847,  when  they  at  once  ap- 
plied themselves  to  the  digging  of  irriga- 
tion ditches.  As  time  wore  on  new 
irrigation  canals  were  built  and  more  and 
more  land  was  brought  under  cultivation. 
Sometimes,  however,  the  full  supply  of 
water  failed  to  reach  the  farmer ;  yet  here 
and  there  fair  but  small  crops  were 
reaped.  This  fact  did  not  escape  the 
22 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

notice  of  the  more  thoughtful  settlers  and 
several  attempts  were  made  to  grow 
wheat  without  irrigation  even  as  early  as 
the  year  1855.  These  efforts  failed  be- 
cause they  were  made  mostly  on  irrigated 
farms.  But  the  farmers  of  that  day  were 
not  aware  of  the  fact,  now  so  well  under- 
stood, that  farming  without  irrigation 
cannot  be  practised  on  soils  which  are 
now  and  then  flooded  with  irrigation 
water.  Ten  years  later  an  experiment 
was  made  on  a  much  larger  and  bolder 
scale.  It  was  then  that  a  little  band  of 
immigrants— most  of  whom  hailed  from 
Scandinavia — had  settled  on  what  is  now 
known  as  Bear  River  City.  They  drew 
the  water  for  their  farms  from  the  Malad 
River.  Now  the  water  of  this  stream  is 
heavy  with  alkali,  and  it  was  only  a  mat- 
ter of  a  few  years  until  the  lands  had 
become  so  impregnated  with  noxious 
salts  as  to  be  unable  to  sustain  a  crop.  In 
25 


DRY-FARMING 

despair  the  settlers  swung  their  plows 
into  the  hopeless  sage-brush  lands, 
planted  their  wheat,  waited,  watched  and 
prayed.  To  their  amazement  the  seed 
sprouted  and  the  young  plants  stood  up 
bravely  in  the  scorching  sun  and  yielded 
a  bountiful  crop.  This  was  the  first  great 
victory  for  dry-farming  in  the  State  of 
Utah.  For  several  years  the  practice 
was  confined  to  the  northern  part  of  the 
State — notably  the  Cache  Valley — and  it 
has  only  been  spread  to  the  central  and 
southern  counties  within  the  past  decade 
or  so.  But  as  far  back  as  the  year  1879 
Major  J.  W.  Powell  in  his  volume  en- 
titled "The  Lands  of  the  Arid  Region" 
speaks  of  the  strange  sight  of  these  dry- 
farms.  And  Brigham  Young  often  pre- 
dicted that  the  time  would  come  when  the 
lands  above  the  irrigation  canals  would 
produce  vast  crops  of  grain.  It  was  only 
however,  as  the  rivers  passed  into  private 
26 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

ownership,  and  the  population  increased 
that  the  people  themselves  seriously 
turned  to  dry-farming.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  with  forty  years'  experience1  it  is 
but  little  wonder  that  the  farmers  of  this 
State  can  speak  as  those  having  authority 
on  the  fundamental  principles  of  dry- 
farming. 

Dry-farming  in  Utah  is  thus  no  mere 
theory,  but  an  actual  fact,  and  if  any 
further  proof  were  needed  it  would  be 
found  in  the  latest  statistics,  which  show 
that  the  acreage  under  the  plow  and  the 
harrow  is  already  far  greater  than  that 
under  the  irrigation  furrow. 

In  Utah  Dr.  John  A.  Widtsoe,  Direc- 
tor of  the  State  Agricultural  College  at 
Logan,  was  the  first  publicly  to  advocate 

1  Recently,  the  writer  visited  a  farm  in  the  Cache  Valley 
which  had  yielded  wheat  continuously  for  the  past  forty 
years  without  the  use  of  manure.  The  usual  practice  had 
been  followed,  viz.,  wheat  one  year,  summer  fallow  the 
next;  and  the  last  crop  was  making  an  excellent  growth. 

27 


DRY-FARMING 

the  reclamation  of  the  deserts  by  the 
scientific  study  of  the  soil.  In  this  cause 
he  has  been  ably  assisted  by  Professor 
Lewis  A.  Merrill,  Superintendent  of  the 
Farmers'  Institutes  and  Editor  of  the 
Deseret  Farmer.  Dr.  Widtsoe's  gospel  of 
dry-farming,  as  applied  to  Utah,  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  following  terms: 

1.  Plow  deep. 

2.  Plow  in  the  Fall;  there  is  no  need 
for  Spring  plowing. 

3.  Cultivate  the  soil  in  early  Spring, 
and  as  far  as  possible  after  every  rain. 

4.  Fallow  the  land  every  other  year, 
under  a  rainfall  of  12  to  15  inches;  every 
third  year,  under  a  rainfall  of  15  to  20 
inches. 

5.  Grow  crops  that  are  drought-re- 
sistant. 

6.  To    make    dry-farming    successful 
among  practical  men  stick  to  a  few  crops, 
preferably  such  staples  as  wheat,  oats, 

28 


DRY-LAND  WHEAT  IN  UTAH 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

barley,  rye  and  alfalfa,  and  then  when 
they  are  established  go  on  to  others. 

The  first  dry- farmers  on  the  bench1 
lands  of  Utah  soon  learned  to  plow 
deeply  and  to  cultivate  often  in  order  to 
provide  a  natural  soil  reservoir  for  their 
scanty  rainfall  and,  at  the  same  time,  to 
retain  it  as  long  as  possible.  They  also 
found  out,  through  long  experience,  that 
light  seeding  and  the  cropping  of  the 
land  every  second  year  gave  the  biggest 
harvests  on  dry  soils.  This  particular 
practice  led  to  the  development  of  mois- 
ture-saving summer  fallows,  of  which  I 
shall  speak  later. 

Other  States. 

Although  I  have  only  touched  upon 
three  States,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that 
dry-farming  is  purely  a  local  problem. 

1  In  agriculture  a  "bench"  is  "the  nearly  level  or 
gently  sloping  land  rising  above  the  adjacent  low  region 
and  forming  a  part  of  a  terrace  or  wash,  disunited  from 
the  remainder  by  erosion. — Century  Dictionary. 

31 


DRY-FARMING 

For  it  has  been  successfully  tried  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree  in  every  State  in 
the  West.  Twenty  years  ago  a  begin- 
ning was  made  in  dry-farming  in  eastern 
Wyoming  near  the  Black  Hills.  During 
the  same  period  settlers  were  pouring 
westward  over  the  Dakotas,  Kansas, 
Colorado,  Montana,  and  the  drier  sec- 
tions of  Oregon. 

Experiment  Stations. 

It  is  said  that  the  first  experiment 
farms  in  the  semi-arid  country  were 
started  by  the  State  of  Colorado  in  the 
year  1894.  But  for  lack  of  funds  these 
stations  were  abandoned  and  it  is  to  the 
State  of  Utah  that  the  honor  belongs 
of  having  first  established  and  success- 
fully maintained  a  series  of  dry-land 
experiment  stations.  Since  the  year 
1895,  the  reclamation  of  the  deserts  with- 
out irrigation  has  been  the  subject  of 
32 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

much  discussion  among  the  officers  of  the 
Utah  Experiment  Station.  In  1901,  a 
systematic  investigation  was  begun,  and 
in  1903  the  Governor  recommended  in 
his  message  to  the  Legislature  that  arid 
experimental  farms  be  established.  Such 
is  the  brief  history  of  the  Arid  Farm 
Bill.  In  the  State  of  Utah,  five  experi- 
mental farms  have  been  established. 
They  consist  of  forty  acres  each.  Each 
county  in  which  a  farm  was  placed 
donated  the  land,  cleared  the  ground  of 
sage-brush,  and  so  forth,  gave  it  a  first 
plowing,  and  inclosed  it  with  a  rabbit- 
proof  fence.  Numerous  citizens  took  a 
personal  interest  in  the  work  and  greatly 
simplified  the  inauguration  of  the  experi- 
mental plots.  These  farms  are  under  the 
direction  of  the  Agricultural  College. 
The  results  of  the  Utah  Dry-Land  Ex- 
periment Farms  may  be  summed  up  as 
follows : 

33 


DRY-FARMING 

They  have  already  demonstrated, 

(1)  The  great  value  of  tillage  in  dry- 
farming. 

(2)  That  by  proper  methods  a  certain 
percentage  of  moisture  can  be  carried 
over  from  one  season  to  another. 

(3)  That  the  finest  wheats  are  those 
grown  on  dry  lands. 

(4)  That  the  area  of  dry-farming  can 
be  greatly  extended  by  the  introduction 
of  drought-resistant  cereals. 

Furthermore,  the  publications  of  these 
stations  have  been  the  means  of  attract- 
ing hundreds  of  new  settlers  to  Utah. 
All  this  has  been  accomplished  with  an 
extraordinarily  low  State  appropriation 
of  $12,000  per  annum.  Meanwhile,  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, through  the  Bureau  of  Plant 
Industry,  has  established  a  chain  of  ex- 
periment stations  in  the  semi-arid  region 
for  the  purpose  of  testing  the  best  meth- 
34 


HISTORY  OF  DRY-FARMING 

ods    of    conserving    soil    moisture    and 
raising  dry-land  crops. 

Dry-Farming  Congress. 

Lastly  must  be  mentioned  the  part 
played  by  the  Dry-Farming  Congress. 
This  conference  was  started  three  years 
ago  in  the  City  of  Denver  as  a  sort  of 
"side-show"  to  the  Live-stock  Exhibi- 
tion; but  it  was  soon  found  that  many 
more  farmers  were  interested  in  the  sub- 
ject of  dry-farming  than  in  the  pedigrees 
of  cattle,  horses,  and  sheep.  And  the 
country  at  large  awoke  to  the  fact  that 
dry-farming  was  no  mere  theory  but  a 
subject  of  vast  economic  importance.  A 
year  later  the  Trans-Missouri  Dry-Farm- 
ing Congress  met  in  Salt  Lake  City; 
and  this  year  at  Cheyenne,  Wyoming, 
when  several  foreign  delegates1  were 

1  The  following  countries  sent  their  representatives  to 
this  Congress :  Australia,  Canada,  Mexico,  Russia,  Brazil, 
Transvaal,  and  Great  Britain. 

37 


DRY-FARMING 

present  and  took  part  in  the  proceed- 
ings. The  fourth  Congress  will  meet  in 
Montana.  In  the  past  dry-farming  has 
suffered  from  the  attempts  of  unscrupulous 
land  dealers  to  use  it  as  a  means  of  selling 
worthless  land.  But  the  Congress  has 
always  stood  out  against  such  misleading 
statements ;  and  at  Cheyenne  a  resolution 
was  passed  denouncing  in  the  strongest 
terms  all  fake  and  sensational  advertise- 
ments. The  future  of  dry-farming  is 
assured.  It  will  take  its  place  alongside 
the  sister  science  of  irrigation,  and 
through  the  combined  efforts  of  the  far- 
mer and  the  expert  it  is  destined  to  exer- 
cise an  enormous  influence  on  the  future 
development  of  the  United  States  and 
the  British  Empire. 


CHAPTER  II 

SOME    POINTS   IN    PRACTICE 

IN  dry-farming  the  most  important 
factor  is  the  nature  and  quality  of  the 
soil.  One  man  may  fail  to  "make  good," 
in  the  expressive  language  of  the  West, 
although  the  rainfall  of  his  region  is 
ample,  by  reason  of  the  poorness  of  the 
soil;  another  may  raise  splendid  crops  in 
a  country  of  a  small  average  precipita- 
tion."1 In  the  selection  and  purchase  of 
dry-farms,  many  serious  mistakes  might 
have  been  avoided  if  the  farmer  had 
known:  first,  that  the  most  important 
thing  is  depth  of  soil;  second,  that  sandy 
or  silty  loams  are  the  best  soils  for  dry- 
farming,  and  third,  that  the  character  of 

1  A  term  which  includes  rain,  snow,  and  sleet. 

39 


DRY-FARMING 

the  soil  can  readily  be  determined  by 
simply  digging  a  pit  or  examining  a 
railroad  cutting.  Having  satisfied  him- 
self on  this  score  the  intelligent  and 
energetic  dry-farmer  can  go  in  and  pos- 
sess the  land  and  be  reasonably  sure  of 
success. 

All  soils  are  not  suitable  for  dry-farm- 
ing. They  may  be  too  shallow  or  too 
loose,  or  too  compact.  The  soil  must  be 
looked  upon  as  a  sort  of  reservoir  for  the 
storage  of  water  over  periods  ranging 
from  a  few  weeks  to  many  months.  With 
that  in  mind,  the-  question  is,  "what  soils 
will  best  retain  the  rainfall?"  And  the 
answer  is,  "sandy  loams  having  a  good 
supply  of  well  decomposed  vegetable 
mold."  Besides,  such  soils  are  warm, 
mellow,  and  easy  to  plow.  In  dry- 
farming  as  a  general  rule,  soils  ought  not 
to  be  too  heavy.  For  example,  clay  soils 
are  unsuitable  as  the  moisture  does  not 
40 


SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE 

rise  fast  enough  to  supply  the  plant  dur- 
ing spells  of  very  dry  weather.  Further- 
more, such  soils  prevent  the  downward 
penetration  of  the  roots  of  the  plant,  and 
are  therefore  to  be  avoided.  Again,  soils 
containing  a  large  quantity  of  humus 
(decaying  vegetable  and  animal  matter) 
are  much  better  than  those  which  are 
lacking  in  this  quality.  Humus  not  only 
increases  the  moisture-holding  capacity 
of  soils,  but  also  improves  their  mechani- 
cal texture.  Although  arid  soils  are 
usually  comparatively  poor  in  humus, 
they  are  much  richer  in  nitrogen  than  the 
soils  of  humid  regions,  and  so,  smaller 
amounts  suffice.  It  has  also  been  recently 
found  that  the  nitrifying  germs  are  pres- 
ent in  large  numbers  in  the  soils  of  the 
drier  regions  and  in  a  very  active  state. 
Soils  known  to  be  poor  in  lime  should  be 
avoided,  or  supplied  with  marl  or  quick- 
lime, preferably  with  marl.  Of  course, 
41 


DRY-FARMING 

naturally  poor  soils  can  be  greatly  im- 
proved and  made  good  dry-farming  soils 
by  green-manuring  or  merely  the  appli- 
cation of  barn-yard  manure.  But  the 
application  of  commercial  fertilizers  is 
seldom  of  much  practical  benefit  to  the 
ordinary  dry-land  farmer  who  needs 
more  especially  a  moisture-retaining  soil 
rather  than  a  temporary  artificial  stimu- 
lant to  plant  growth.  The  nature  of 
vegetation  is  a  very  important  matter. 
In  a  new  country  the  prospective  farmer 
should  first  of  all  look  out  for  any  wild 
leguminous  (pod-forming)  plants.  For 
two  reasons:  first,  because  they  indicate 
the  presence  of  sufficient  lime  to  justify 
dry-farming;  and,  secondly,  they  nearly 
always  have  deep  roots  showing  a  good 
depth  of  soil.  Another  point  to  be  noted 
on  viewing  all  agricultural  lands  is  the 
development  of  trees.  Are  they  well 
developed  and  of  fairly  normal  form — 
42 


SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE 

not  low  or  stunted?  It  is  not  so  much  a 
question  of  species  as  a  problem  of  nor- 
mal or  abnormal  growth.  Certain  trees 
indicate  good  land  provided  they  are  of 
normal  growth. 

But  the  most  essential  point  is  to  bore 
to  a  depth  of  not  less  than  five  or  six  feet 
in  order  to  see  what  is  the  nature  of  the 
subsoil.  For  in  dry-farming  the  amount 
of  moisture  which  will  rise  to  the  plant 
roots  depends  upon  what  sort  of  soil  is 
below  and  its  depth.  Gravel  will  effec- 
tually hinder  water  from  getting  up  from 
below.  Further,  if  the  water-table  (that 
is,  the  point  at  which  water  is  found  by 
digging)  is  too  shallow,  the  roots  will  be 
prevented  from  feeding  properly  and 
may  be  drowned.  For  example,  a  water- 
table  of  five  feet  is  too  little  for  al- 
falfa (lucerne)  though  it  would  do  well 
enough  for  clover ;  alfalfa  should  have  at 
least  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  for  its  long 

8  43 


DRY-FARMING 

tap-root  to  strike  down  and  fully  de- 
velop. Again,  you  can  often  get  a  good 
idea  of  the  true  nature  of  the  subsoil  by 
noticing  how  deep  ants  and  burrowing 
animals  go  and  what  kind  of  soil  they 
bring  up.  Perhaps  a  single  case  which 
Professor  Hilgard  mentioned  to  the 
writer  will  make  this  clear.  Some  time 
ago,  in  the  State  of  Washington,  Hil- 
gard noticed  a  tall  luscious  grass  grow- 
ing in  a  particularly  arid  region.  He 
could  not  understand  how  the  grass  hap- 
pened to  thrive  there  until  he  observed 
that  it  invariably  grew  in  the  burrows  of 
badgers.  The  badgers  had  subsoiled  the 
land  and  so  made  a  natural  soil  reservoir 
which  was  moist  enough  for  that  par- 
ticular species  of  grass.  Here  the  bad- 
gers l  proved  a  true  beacon  to  the  farmers 
who  afterwards  went  in  and  possessed  the 

1  In  South  Africa  the  presence  of  ant-hills  is  usually  a 
reliable  sign  of  good  dry-farming  country. 

44 


SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE 

land.  Subsequently,  the  same  land  grew 
excellent  crops  of  potatoes.  It  is  always 
well  to  look  carefully  at  the  roots  of 
native  grasses ;  to  follow  their  depth  and 
then  to  find  out  by  simple  feeding  tests, 
chemical  analysis,  or  inquiry,  the  nutri- 
tive value  of  each  grass.  Some  grasses 
are  so  full  of  flinty  matter  that  cattle  will 
not  thrive  on  them;  others  again,  grow- 
ing on  very  dry  lands,  often  make  very 
good  fodder.  Furthermore,  animals 
usually  prefer  the  grass  growing  on  hilly 
lands  to  the  green  vegetation  on  low  or 
bottom  lands,  which  is  apt  to  be  more  or 
less  salty,  especially  in  arid  regions. 

Finally,  in  case  of  doubt  as  to  the  real 
nature  of  the  land,  you  can  go  to  the 
nearest  bluff  and  look  at  the  geological 
formation  of  the  country.  A  gentle  slope 
is  the  best  land  for  dry-farming,  as  hilly 
land  is  likely  to  be  more  or  less  irregular, 
with  very  uncertain  soil  strata. 
45 


DRY-FARMING 

Moisture  and  Fertility. 

In  dry-farming,  then,  the  two  funda- 
mental problems  are  the  conservation  of 
moisture  and  the  maintenance  of  soil 
fertility.  Moreover,  it  may  be  said  in  a 
broad  way  that  while  the  farmer  of  the 
East  is  most  interested  in  the  question  of 
fertility,  the  farmer  of  the  semi-arid 
West  is  much  more  interested  in  the  sav- 
ing of  moisture.  Nor  is  the  reason  far  to 
seek.  In  the  Eastern  States  there  is  a 
plentiful  supply  of  moisture,  but  the  soils 
of  many  farms  have  been  exhausted  by 
injudicious  cropping  year  after  year  and 
the  land  will  no  longer  yield  a  profitable 
crop.  The  Eastern  farmer  is  therefore 
confronted  with  an  impoverished  and  ill- 
used  soil.  And  so  he  tries  to  restore  the 
early  fertility  of  his  soil  by  the  use  of 
commercial  fertilizers,1  barn-yard,  or 

1  The  farmers  of  a  single  State,  Maine,  spent  last  year 
$5,000,000  on  the  purchase  of  commercial  fertilizers. 


SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE 

green  manures.  But  the  farmer  of  Utah, 
Montana,  and  Arizona  is  working  on 
different  land.  He  knows  that  if  he  can 
conserve  his  moisture  he  will  reap  an 
abundant  harvest.1  His  problem  then  is 
how  best  to  store  up  his  small  annual 
rainfall.  Show  him  how  to  do  that  and 
he  is  fully  satisfied.  Indeed,  it  is  more  or 
less  useless  to  urge  the  conservation  of 
fertility  on  men  whose  real  need  is  more 
water.  I  do  not  wish  to  minimize  the 
great  value  of  fertility  or  the  necessity 
of  keeping  the  essential  plant- foods  from 
being  used  up:  but  simply  to  emphasize 
the  fact  that  the  farm  must  be  made  to 
pay,  and  it  is  more  important  for  the 
Western  farmer  to  concentrate  his  mind 
on  the  conservation  of  soil  moisture  than 
on  the  possible  exhaustion  of  his  land  in 
ten  years'  time.  There  are,  of  course, 

1  This  is  also  largely  true  of  South  Africa,  where  the 
problem  of  moisture  supply  is  much  more  important  than 
the  question  of  fertility. 

49 


DRY-FARMING 

districts  in  the  West,  notably  in  Oregon 
and  in  Minnesota,  where  the  continuous 
cropping  of  wheat  over  periods  of  ten  to 
thirty  years  has  seriously  injured  the 
land.  The  only  rational  way  of  restoring 
the  fertility  to  such  soils  and  increasing 
the  yields  on  these  old  grain  lands  is  by 
rotation  of  crops,  and  the  use  of  barn- 
yard and  green  manures  so  as  to  return 
vegetable  matter  to  the  soil.  One  of  the 
very  best  crops  to  use  for  this  purpose  is 
clover  which  has  given  such  excellent  re- 
sults on  the  exhausted  wheat  soils  of  the 
Red  River  Valley  and  southwestern 
Minnesota.  Clover  is  a  nitrogen-gath- 
ering crop  and  is  unrivaled  as  a  soil- 
renovator.  In  dry-farming,  commercial 
fertilizers  are  of  little  practical  use  and 
should  be  avoided.  For  they  do  not  in- 
crease the  store  of  humus — vegetable 
mold — which  is  so  important  an  agent  in 
conserving  the  soil  moisture.  Further- 
50 


SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE 

more,  being  so  expensive,  they  are  only 
suited  to  intensive  farming  on  limited 
areas  close  to  the  large  markets. 

Mixed  Farming. 

The  most  successful  dry-land  farmers 
are  those  who  are  engaged  in  mixed 
farming— that  is,  growing  grain  and  rais- 
ing stock  at  the  same  time.  This  is  easily 
understood  when  we  remember  what  an 
important  bearing  manure  has  on  soil 
improvement,  fertility,  and  the  retention 
of  moisture.  Where  crops  are  fed  to 
stock  on  the  farm  and  the  manure  and 
refuse,  such  as  corn  stalks,  returned  to 
the  land,  the  loss  of  soil  fertility  is  com- 
paratively small.  The  feeding  of  cattle, 
lambs  and  hogs  on  the  dry-farm  will 
bring  in  to  the  energetic  farmer  ready 
money,  while  the  manure  will  help  to  im- 
prove his  soils  and  sustain  his  crops  in 
seasons  of  drought. 

51 


DRY-FARMING 

Implements  for  Dry-Farming. 

In  order  to  carry  out  the  principles  of 
dry-farming,  it  is  not  necessary  to  pur- 
chase expensive  implements;  and  many 
farmers  raise  good  crops  on  dry  lands 
with  a  very  few  tools.  Indeed,  the  writer 
has  seen  more  than  one  farmer  ruined 
through  the  extravagant  purchase  of 
costly  agricultural  machines  which,  when 
not  in  use,  were  allowed  to  remain  rusting 
in  rain  and  snow-storm.  As  far  as  pos- 
sible simple  sheds  should  be  erected  for  all 
farm  implements,  or  they  may  be  covered 
with  tarpaulins  and  greased  from  time  to 
time.  The  dry-farmer  should  possess  the 
following:  Two-furrow  plow,  single- 
furrow  plow,  disc  harrow,  steel-tooth 
harrow,  chain  harrow,  acme  harrow, 
spring- tooth  harrow,  alfalfa  (lucerne) 
harrow,1  weeder,  float  or  drag,  corn- 

1  Note  the  number  of  harrows.     All  of  use  in  making 
the  soil  mulch. 

52 


SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE 

planter,  press-drill,  potato-planter  and 
digger,  horse-hoes  and  cultivators,  roller, 
sub-surface  packer,1  mowing-machine, 
wagon,  hay-rake,  etc. 

Size  of  the  Dry-Farm. 

The  question  is  often  asked,  "How 
large  should  a  dry- farm  be?"  This  is  a 
purely  local  or  personal  question  gov- 
erned by  the  land  laws  of  individual 
States.  If  it  were  practicable  it  should 
depend  on  the  family  unit.  That  is  to 
say,  can  a  farm  of  a  quarter-section,  160 
acres  (Homestead  Law),  afford  a  suffi- 
cient acreage  to  support  the  farmer,  his 
wife  and  four  or  five  children;  or  does  it 
require  half  a  section,  320  acres,  as  under 
the  new  Mondell  Law,2  or  a  whole  sec- 

1  A  sub-surface  packer  is  not  essential,  and  should  be 
used  with  great  care  on  wet  or  heavy  soil. 

2  This  Act,  which  was  approved  February  19,  1909,  pro- 
vides for  an  enlarged  homestead.     This  Act  provides  for 
the  making  of  Homestead  entry  for  an  area  of  320  acres 

53 


DRY-FARMING 

tion,  640  acres,  as  out  among  the  sand- 
hills of  Nebraska.  All  this  naturally 
depends  upon  the  energy  of  the  husband- 
man, the  nature  of  his  climate,  and  the 
productivity  of  his  soil.  At  farmers' 
meetings  it  is  usual  to  hear  this  matter 
debated,  with  much  earnestness,  from 
two  different  points  of  view.  On  the  one 

or  less  of  non-mineral,  non-timbered,  non-irrigable  public 
land  in  the  States  of  Colorado,  Montana,  Nevada,  Oregon, 
Utah,  Washington,  Wyoming,  and  in  the  Territories  of 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  This  Act  is  construed  to  mean 
land  which  requires  the  application  of  dry-farming  meth- 
ods to  make  it  produce  agricultural  crops.  Final  proof 
must  be  made  as  in  the  ordinary  Homestead,  and  further, 
at  least  one  fourth  of  the  whole  area  must  be  shown  to 
have  been  continuously  cultivated  to  agricultural  crops, 
other  than  native  grasses,  beginning  with  the  third  year 
of  the  entry  and  continuing  to  date  of  final  proof.  Fur- 
thermore, commutation  is  expressly  forbidden.  An  inter- 
esting additional  clause  is  inserted  in  this  Act  in  regard  to 
the  State  of  Utah,  to  the  effect  that  on  lands  which  have 
not  sufficient  water  upon  them  for  domestic  purposes,  con- 
tinuous residence  is  not  necessary,  but  the  entryman  may 
reside  at  such  distance  as  will  enable  him  to  farm  success- 
fully. Further,  he  must  show  that  he  has  cultivated  not 
less  than  one  half  of  the  total  area  during  the  fourth  and 
fifth  years  after  entry. 

54 


SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE 

hand  it  is  said,  with  much  truth,  that  the 
great  need  in  America  to-day  is  better 
tillage;  that  the  Red  River  farmer 
should  produce  not  7  or  8  bushels  of 
wheat,  but  14  to  16;  and  that  this  could 
be  done  by  better  cultivation  on  smaller 
holdings.  On  the  other  hand  the  West- 
erner justly  remarks:  "I  am  a  pioneer, 
far  removed  from  the  comforts  and 
pleasures  of  civilization.  Land  is  cheap 
and  abundant.  I  can  live  more  easily  and 
feed  more  stock  on  320  acres  than  I  can 
on  160."  The  writer  has  an  open  mind  on 
this  subject  and  does  not  care  to  dogma- 
tize. But  the  following  is  possibly  a  fair 
statement  of  the  case.  For  farming 
under  irrigation  the  small  farm  unit  40, 
80,  or  160  acres  are  the  figures  to  be  con- 
sidered; but  a  much  larger  unit,  160,  320, 
640  is  essential  to  the  dry-farmer.  At 
any  rate  every  one  should  possess  twice 
the  amount  of  land  he  proposes  to  put  in 
55 


DRY-FARMING 

crop  and  at  least  as  much  again  for  stock 
pasture.  Undoubtedly,  a  section— 640 
acres— of  land  would  bring  in  a  more 
certain  livelihood  than  a  smaller  holding, 
and  half  that  amount,  where  little  or  no 
water  is  available  for  irrigation,  is  small 
enough  to  make  a  comfortable  living  in 
many  parts  of  the  semi-arid  West. 

The  Lesson. 

The  development  of  dry-farming  is 
teaching  the  old  but  too  often  forgotten 
lesson  of  the  value  of  proper  tillage.  The 
most  common  and  fatal  error  in  Western 
farming  is  the  careless  preparation  of  the 
ground.  Poor,  shallow  plowing  and  the 
lack  of  after-cultivation  of  the  soil  are 
the  two  factors  to  which  crop  failure  is 
mainly  due.  It  is  impossible  for  any 
plant  to  withstand  a  severe  drought  when 
its  roots  lie  in  hard,  dry  soil.  But  put  the 
same  seed  in  deep  mellow  earth,  with  a 
56 


SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE 

moisture-saving  mantle,  and  it  remains 
green  after  weeks  of  rainless  weather. 

And  the  mistake  of  the  semi-arid 
mountain  region  is  over-irrigation  with 
little  or  no  cultivation.  The  same  is 
equally  true  of  South  African  agricul- 
ture. It  is  far  easier  to  irrigate  than  to 
cultivate  when  a  crop  shows  signs  of  dis- 
tress, and  the  soil  soon  becomes  stagnant 
with  a  surplus  supply  of  water.  Sun- 
shine and  air  are  excluded,  the  fertility  of 
the  land  impaired,  and  the  root  system 
of  the  crop  often  permanently  injured. 
When  farmers  realize  that  many  crops 
can  be  successfully  grown  on  dry  lands 
merely  with  good  cultivation,  they  will 
hesitate  before  embarking  upon  expen- 
sive irrigation  schemes,  and  will  seriously 
study  the  problem  of  better  tillage  before 
they  face  the  cost  of  constructing  canals. 

Again,  farming  with  irrigation  usually 
costs  more  per  acre  than  dry-land  f  arm- 
59 


DRY-FARMING 

ing.  The  products  of  irrigated  land,  such 
as  sugar-beets,  vegetables,  fruits,  and 
forage  crops,  are  well  adapted  to  the 
local  market;  while  grain  crops,  such  as 
wheat  and  maize  for  over-sea  export,  can 
be  produced  much  more  cheaply  on  dry 
lands.  But  undoubtedly  the  safest 
method  is  to  use  dry-farming,  whenever 
possible,  as  an  adjunct  to  irrigation;  and 
the  arid  West  is  now  dotted  with  wind- 
mills, which  tap  artesian  veins;  while 
small  dams  are  being  built  to  collect  the 
surface  water  and  so  secure  for  the  set- 
tler, even  in  the  severest  drought,  a  little 
fruit,  a  few  vegetables,  and  some  grain 
for  his  table,  and  forage  for  his  animals. 
Thus  the  two  parts  of  a  farm— the  dry 
lands  and  the  lands  under  water — are 
being  made  to  supplement  one  another  to 
their  mutual  advantage.  At  present  the 
Federal  Government  of  the  United 
States  is  carefully  considering  a  scheme 
60 


SOME  POINTS  IN  PRACTICE 

of  hydrographic  survey  for  the  purpose 
of  determining  the  extent  and  location 
of  underground  water  in  the  dry-farming 
regions  of  the  West.  Without  such  a 
survey  a  settler  may  spend  his  life  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  water  or  waste 
much  money  in  fruitless  attempts  to 
locate  wells. 


61 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   CONSERVATION   OF   SOIL   MOISTURE 

THE  most  important  problem  in  dry- 
farming,  as  already  stated,  is  un- 
questionably that  which  deals  with  the 
conservation  of  soil  moisture.  Hardly  a 
season  passes  but  we  hear  of  crops  which 
have  failed  because  of  lack  of  rain;  and 
this  complaint  is,  unfortunately,  not  con- 
fined to  any  one  particular  district,  but  is 
more  or  less  common  to  all  parts  of  the 
West.  "How  can  we  control  and  con- 
serve the  soil  moisture  so  as  to  save  our 
crops  in  time  of  drought?" 

Soil  Water. 

Now,  in  order  to  answer  this  question, 
we  must  first  understand  how  the  soil 
62 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

holds  its  water,  and  the  part  it  plays  in 
the  mystery  of  plant  growth.  Nor 
should  we  forget  that  the  water-holding 
capacity  of  any  soil  is  a  most  important 
factor  in  determining  the  value  of  farm 
lands— a  matter  which,  so  far  as  the 
writer  is  aware,  has  not  yet  been  fully 
recognized  in  this  country.  It  is  also  im- 
portant to  consider  the  way  in  which 
moisture  may  be  dissipated  or  lost.  In 
the  first  place,  water,  falling  as  rain  upon 
a  field,  may  be  lost  by  a  surface  run-off, 
or  by  percolation  in  the  case  of  loose, 
gravelly  soil;  or,  lastly,  by  evaporation 
from  the  surface  of  the  ground.  It  is 
plain,  therefore,  that  if  by  any  means  we 
can  lessen  this  loss  of  water  from  the  soil 
a  larger  and  surer  crop-yield  will  follow. 
All  farmers  are  aware  of  the  vast  im- 
portance of  moisture  to  the  growing 
crop;  but  perhaps  few  realize  the  enor- 
mous amount  of  water  that  is  needed  for 
4  63 


DRY-FARMING 

even  a  normal  crop.  Numerous  experi- 
ments have  shown  that  from  300  to  over 
500  tons  of  water  are  required  on  the 
average  to  produce  one  ton  of  dry  vege- 
table matter.  In  Wisconsin,  King  found 
that  a  two-ton  crop  of  oat-hay  re- 
quired over  1000  tons  of  water  per  acre, 
which  is  equal  to  about  nine  inches  of 
rainfall. 

Again,  the  amount  of  water  which  a 
soil  can  hold  depends  chiefly  upon  the 
depth  of  the  soil  reservoir  and  the  fine- 
ness of  the  soil  particles.  That  is  to  say, 
deep  plowing  and  the  thorough  pulver- 
izing of  the  soil  are  the  two  factors  which 
enable  any  soil  to  hold  the  maximum 
amount  of  moisture.  Most  farmers  are 
well  aware  of  the  advantages  of  deep 
plowing,  more  particularly  in  dry  sea- 
sons; but  some  do  not  yet  fully  com- 
prehend the  benefit  of  "fining"  or 
pulverizing  the  soil.  Now,  since  each 
64 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

individual  soil  grain  is  more  or  less  sur- 
rounded by  a  film  of  moisture,  as  will  be 
seen  hereafter,  it  is  evident  that,  other 
things  being  equal,  the  largest  aggregate 
area  of  earth  grains  will  retain  the  most 
water  per  cubic  foot.  Let  us  make  this 
plain  by  a  simple  sum.  Suppose  that  a 
cubic  foot  of  marbles  one  inch  in  diam- 
eter has  a  total  surface  of  27.7  square 
feet.  Now,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
reduce  these  marbles  to  one  thousandth 
of  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  you  will  find 
that  the  total  area  per  cubic  foot  is  in- 
creased to  27,700  square  feet.  From  this 
little  problem  it  is  clear  that  the  total 
amount  of  water  capable  of  being  ab- 
sorbed by  a  soil  which  is  cloddy  and 
lumpy  must  be  very  small  in  comparison 
with  that  in  a  finely  divided  state,  and  not 
only  is  the  absorbing  power  of  the  soil 
much  less,  but  its  capacity  for  holding 
moisture  is  likewise  greatly  diminished. 
65 


DRY-FARMING 

Free  Water  or  Well  Water. 

It  is  well  known  that  all  fertile  soils 
contain  many  tons  of  water,  which  is 
usually  present  in  three  forms  as  (a)  free 
water  or  well  water,  (b)  film  water  or 
capillary  water,  and  (c)  hygroscopic 
water. 

Free  water  is  frequently  called  well 
water,  ground  water,  standing  water,  or 
first  water.  It  comes  to  the  surface  in 
the  form  of  springs,  and  is  usually  the 
source  of  the  supply  of  wells.  If  you  dig 
a  hole  in  any  ground,  you  will  generally 
strike  water  at  a  certain  depth,  which 
may  be  several  inches  or  many  feet  below 
the  surface.  This  point  is  termed  the 
"water-table."  Now  the  surface  of  the 
water-table  follows,  roughly,  the  general 
contour  of  the  land;  that  is,  it  stands 
highest  where  the  ground  is  highest,  and 
lowest  where  the  land  is  lowest.  In  dig- 
ging wells,  therefore,  the  farmer  must  take 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

care  to  sink  the  bottom  of  his  well  so  far 
below  the  level  of  the  water-table  that 
seasonable  changes  will  not  cause  it  to  go 
dry.  As  a  recent  authority  remarks, 
"We  must  consider,  then,  that  beneath  all 
farm  soils,  at  some  depth,  there  is  stand- 
ing water,  and  that  we  plow  and  har- 
row above  subterranean  lakes."  This  is 
a  most  important  fact,  because  if  it  is 
only  a  matter  of  one  or  two  feet  from  the 
surface  of  the  land  to  the  level  of  the  so- 
called  soil-lake,  there  is  evidently  not 
enough  dry  soil  for  the  plants  to  grow 
and  thrive  in,  and  consequently  they  are 
liable  to  sicken  and  die  off.  The  depth 
of  standing  water  most  favorable  to 
crops  cannot  be  definitely  stated,  since  so 
much  depends  upon  the  nature  of  the  soil 
and  the  roots  of  the  crop.  Thus,  while 
lucerne  needs  a  fairly  large  amount  of 
water  to  do  well,  its  deep-rooting  habit 
renders  it  undesirable  that  the  "first,"  or 
69 


DRY-FARMING 

standing  water,  should  be  as  near  as  three 
feet  from  the  surface  of  the  soil,  whereas 
the  shallower-rooting  cereals  may  be  suc- 
cessfully grown  with  a  water-level  of  this 
depth.  But  in  no  case  should  free  water 
come  within  eighteen  inches  of  the  sur- 
face. Tap-rooted  plants  descend  to  an 
extraordinary  depth  in  sandy  loams,  and 
for  such  crops  a  high  permanent  water- 
level  is  not  good,  since  they  can  obtain 
their  moisture  supply  at  great  depths  and 
demand  a  feeding  area  vast  in  compari- 
son with  the  soil  mass  at  the  service  of 
shallow-rooted  herbs.  Thus  lucerne  roots 
frequently  penetrate  to  the  depth  of 
twenty  feet,  and  double  this  distance  is 
not  unknown. 

Film  Water  or  Capillary  Water. 

But  the  most  valuable  water  in  the 
soil  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  im- 
portant for  the  dry-land  farmer,  is  that 
70 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

which  surrounds  the  soil  grains  in  the 
form  of  moisture  films,  and  which  is  also 
known  under  the  name  of  capillary 
water.  It  is  this  water  which  is  absorbed 
by  the  roots  of  the  plants,  and,  conse- 
quently, forms  the  direct  source  of  sup- 
ply of  all  cultivated  crops.  If  you  take 
a  pebble  and  dip  it  into  a  basin  of  water 
or  into  the  brook,  you  will  observe  a  film 
of  water  closely  sticking  to  the  surface  of 
the  stone.  This  is  an  illustration  of  what 
is  termed  "surface  tension,"  by  means  of 
which  water,  in  the  form  of  moisture 
films,  is  held  in  the  pores  of  the  soil  par- 
ticles. The  existence  of  this  physical 
force  may  be  made  clear  by  the  simple 
experiment  of  floating  a  clean  needle, 
carefully  laid,  on  the  surface  of  water,  or 
by  the  fact  that  a  drop  of  any  liquid  tends 
to  assume  the  smallest  possible  space — 
that  is,  the  shape  of  a  sphere.  In  short, 
the  free  surface  of  any  liquid  tends  to 
71 


DRY-FARMING 

become  a  sort  of  stretched  elastic  film 
under  molecular  attraction;  and  this  is 
what  happens  to  the  soil  films  under  the 
action  of  surface  tension. 

Now,  if  very  fine  capillary  glass  tubes 
are  dipped  into  water,  the  water  will  rise 
up  the  tubes  in  inverse  proportion  to  their 
diameters,  or,  in  other  words,  the  smaller 
and  thinner  the  tubes  the  higher  will  the 
liquid  rise.  Again,  if  the  bottom  of  a 
tube  containing  soil  is  placed  in  contact 
with  water  the  moisture  will  be  drawn  up 
one,  two,  three,  or  even  more  feet,  de- 
pending upon  the  nature  and  the  fineness 
of  the  soil.  The  movement  of  film  water 
is  usually  referred  to  as  "capillary  ac- 
tion," and  it  was  formerly  supposed  that 
this  moisture  passed  upward  to  the  sur- 
face by  means  of  capillary  or  hairlike 
tubes.  In  reality,  there  are  no  such  tubes, 
merely  fine  passages,  pores,  or  capillary 
channels,  and  the  film  water  rises  from 
72 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

the  sub-soil  by  means  of  surface  tension. 
Thus,  when  the  sun  is  hot,  or  a  drying 
wind  scorches  the  ground,  the  soil 
moisture  rises — as  oil  is  drawn  up  to 
feed  the  flame  of  a  lamp-wick — from 
the  water-table  below,  which  may  be  two, 
six,  or  twenty  feet  beneath  the  surface  of 
the  ground;  that  is,  wherever  free  or 
standing  water  is  found.  Hall  mentions 
the  steady  rise  of  capillary  moisture 
through  200  feet  of  fine-grained  chalk 
during  a  dry  season  in  the  south  of  Eng- 
land. 

Furthermore,  capillary  action  depends 
on  the  fineness  of  the  soil  particles  and 
their  closeness  to  each  other.  In  coarse, 
loose,  sandy,  or  gravelly  soils  the  action  is 
weak;  in  fine,  well-compacted  soils  it  is 
strong.  Thus  in  the  conservation  of  soil 
moisture  capillarity  is  a  matter  of  the  ut- 
most importance;  and,  accordingly,  in 
selecting  a  farm  or  a  portion  of  a  farm 
73 


DRY-FARMING 

for  dry-land  crops,  this  problem  should 
be  most  carefully  considered.  For  in  a 
severe  drought  it  is  always  the  crops  on 
gravels  and  coarse  sands,  having  a  poor 
lifting  power,  which  suffer  first,  since  the 
sub-soil  water  is  with  difficulty  drawn  up 
to  the  roots  of  the  plant.  Should  the 
drought  continue,  the  clay  soils  suffer 
next,  for,  although  they  may  start  with 
a  much  larger  supply  of  soil  moisture,  yet 
the  water  moves  very  slowly  through  the 
very  fine  pore  spaces,  and  the  upward  lift 
cannot  keep  pace  with  the  loss  at  the  sur- 
face due  to  transpiration1  and  evapora- 
tion. 

As  Hall2  remarks,  and  the  writer's 
own  experience  bears  out  this  statement, 
"The  soils  which  are  least  affected  by 
drought  are  the  deep  loamy  sands  of 
very  uniform  texture,  fine-grained 

1  Evaporation  of  water  from  the  leaves  and  stems  of 
plants. 

2  "The  SoU,"  by  A.  D.  Hall,  page  95. 

74 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

enough  to  possess  a  considerable  lifting 
surface,  and  yet  not  so  fine  as  to  inter- 
fere with  the  free  movement  of  soil  water. 
The  western  soils  which  American  wri- 
ters describe  as  capable  of  withstanding 
an  unbroken  summer  drought  of  three 
months'  duration  are  deep,  fine-grained, 
and  uniform,  with  practically  no  par- 
ticles of  the  clay  order  of  magnitude  to 
check  the  upward  lift  by  capillarity."  In 
many  portions  of  the  semi-arid  West  a 
most  casual  examination  will  reveal  two 
types  of  soil  from  an  agricultural  stand- 
point. The  one  may  be  characterized  as 
a  shallow,  sandy  soil,  one  to  three  feet  in 
depth,  resting  upon  a  gravel  sub-soil; 
while  the  other  is  a  deep  uniform  loam 
from  ten  to  thirty  feet  in  depth.  It  need 
hardly  be  said  that  the  second  soil— the 
deep  loam — will  remain  practically  un- 
affected in  dry  weather,  while  plants  on 
the  shallow  soil  are  wilting,  parched,  and 
75 


DRY-FARMING 

dying.  But  the  extraordinary  thing  is 
that  intelligent  men  will  buy  farms  with- 
out the  faintest  conception  of  the  nature 
and  quality  of  the  sub-soil— a  matter 
which  can  be  readily  ascertained,  in  a  few 
hours,  or  a  day  or  two  at  most,  by  exam- 
ining cuttings,  wells,  railroad  embank- 
ments, digging  pits  here  and  there,  or  by 
boring  with  a  simple  post-hole  auger,  as 
well  as  by  taking  stock  of  the  growth  and 
depth  of  the  root-system  of  native  trees 
and  shrubs,  grasses,  legumes,  etc. 

Arid  it  cannot  be  too  strongly  em- 
phasized that  all  farmers  should  make 
themselves  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
the  character  of  their  soil  down  to  the 
depth  of  at  least  four,  but  preferably  six 
to  eight  feet.  The  wisest  agricultural 
chemist  in  the  United  States  to-day,  Pro- 
fessor Hilgard,  remarks,  "It  is  hardly 
excusable  that  a  business  man  calling 
himself  a  farmer  should  omit  the  most 
76 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

elementary  precaution  of  examining  his 
sub-soil  before  planting  an  orchard  or  a 
vineyard,  and  should  at  the  end  of  five 
years  find  his  trees  a  dead  loss  in  con- 
sequence of  an  unsuitable  sub-soil." 
Again  Hilgard  says:  "Eastern  emi- 
grants, as  well  as  a  large  proportion  of 
Calif ornian  farmers,  do  not  realize  the 
privileges  they  possess  in  having  a  triple 
or  quadruple  acreage  of  arable  soil  under 
their  feet,  over  and  above  the  area  for 
which  their  title-deeds  call." 

Hygroscopic  Moisture  or  Water  Vapor. 
We  now  come  to  the  third  way  in 
which  water  may  occur  in  a  soil.  This  is 
as  water  vapor  or  hygroscopic  moisture.1 
The  surface-soil  absorbs  water  vapor 
from  the  air,  and  more  especially  during 
heavy  dews  and  mists  or  in  cool,  damp 

1  If  you  take  a  tumbler  of  cold  water  into  a  warm  room 
the  glass  becomes  coated  with  a  thin  film  of  hygroscopic 
moisture  produced  by  condensation. 

79 


DRY-FARMING 

nights.  Thus  it  is  that  in  some  parts  of 
the  United  States,  notably  California, 
summer  fogs  have  a  markedly  good  effect 
upon  vegetation.  And  although  this 
moisture  is  of  but  little  value  save  in 
times  of  severe  drought,  it  is  not  to  be 
despised  by  any  means.  During  the  hot 
days  of  summer  a  soil  of  a  high  ab- 
sorptive power  such  as  a  well-tilled  clay 
loam,  will  retain  its  moisture  for  a  much 
longer  time  than  a  soil  of  low  absorptive 
power,  such  as  a  shallow  sandy  soil, 
whose  store  of  moisture  will  be  exhausted 
in  a  few  hours,  while  the  surface  of  the 
land  itself  is  heated  up  to  the  scalding 
point,  thereby  searing  the  stems  and 
root-crowns  of  the  growing  crop.  It  is 
also  worthy  of  note  that,  generally  speak- 
ing, soils  of  high  absorptive  power  are 
also  those  of  high  capillary  power. 

Hilgard  summarizes  the  effect  of  hy- 
groscopic moisture  as  follows : 
80 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

1.  Soils  of  high  hygroscopic  moisture 
can  withdraw   from  moist   air  enough 
moisture  to  be  of  material  help  in  sus- 
taining the  life  of  vegetation  in  rainless 
summers  or  in  time  of  drought.     Such 
soils  cannot,  however,  maintain  normal 
growth,  save  in  the  case  of  some  desert 
plants. 

2.  High  moisture  absorption  prevents 
the  rapid  and  undue  heating  of  the  sur- 
face-soil to  the  danger-point,  and  thus 
often  saves  crops  that  are  lost  in  soils  of 
low  hygroscopic  power. 

The  Soil-Mulch. 

Having  spoken  of  the  various  ways  in 
which  moisture  may  exist  in  the  soil,  we 
now  come  to  a  discussion  of  the  best 
means  of  conserving  this  moisture.  This 
can  best  be  done  by  what  is  commonly 
known  as  mulching.  Any  material  which 
is  spread  upon  the  soil  to  shade  the  sur- 
81 


DRY-FARMING 

face  from  the  sun  and  to  break  the 
connection  between  the  water-bearing 
sub-soil  and  the  exposed  evaporating 
surface,  is  termed  a  mulch.  In  garden- 
ing operations  leaves,  manure,  coarse 
hay,  straw,  grass  clippings,  etc.,  are  com- 
monly used.  Such  mulches  of  loose  or- 
ganic material  are  very  effective— even 
more  so  than  a  mulch  of  fine  earth— but 
they  hinder  the  continual  stirring  of  the 
land,  which  promotes  aeration  and  nitri- 
fication.1 Stones  serve  practically  the 
same  purpose  as  a  mulch,  if  they  happen 
to  be  spread  thickly  upon  the  surface  of 
the  ground,  as  they  shield  the  land  from 
evaporation  and  so  tend  to  keep  the  soil 
cool  and  moist.  In  the  bleak,  wind- 
swept county  of  Caithness,  in  the  far 
north  of  Scotland,  the  writer  has  known 
of  cases  in  which  the  removal  of  the  nu- 

1  Process  of  changing  nitrogen  into  nitric  acid  and 
nitrates. 

82 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

merous  small  pieces  of  slate  and  stone—- 
which are  often  found  on  the  arable  lands 
of  that  region — has  caused  a  marked 
decrease  in  the  crop  of  the  ensuing  sea- 
son. Everywhere  you  may  see  homely 
examples  of  the  principle  of  mulching. 
Turn  over  a  board  or  stone  lying  on  the 
ground;  the  soil  beneath  is  more  moist 
than  the  ground  near  by — for  the  pores 
of  the  earth  have  been  closed,  and  the 
current  of  moisture  passing  upward  has 
been  stopped.  That  is  why  fisher-lads 
look  for  earthworms  beneath  stones  when 
the  weather  is  dry. 

But  the  most  useful  and  practical 
mulch  in  dry-farming  is  that  which  is 
made  of  loose,  dry  soil.  This  is  done  by 
stirring  the  surface  of  the  soil  with  any 
implement  of  tillage  such  as  the  plow, 
the  harrow,  or  the  cultivator.  In  closely 
packed  soil  capillarity  freely  takes  place, 
and  as  the  surface  layer  dries  under  the 

5  83 


DRY-FARMING 

action  of  the  sun  and  the  wind,  fresh  sup- 
plies of  water  are  lifted  from  the  sub-soil 
water  to  the  exposed  and  rapidly  evapo- 
rating surface.  In  a  word,  we  may  think 
of  the  sun  and  the  wind  as  a  mighty 
double-acting  force-pump.  In  a  recent 
experiment  it  was  found  that  each  square 
foot  of  an  ordinary  farm  soil  during  the 
summer  months  lost  1.3  pounds  of  water 
daily  by  evaporation  from  the  surface  of 
the  land;  or,  in  other  words,  over  five 
inches  in  a  single  month.  But  should  the 
top  layer  of  soil  be  broken  up  and  left 
loose  upon  the  land  by  cultivation,  then 
there  is  no  longer  one  continuous  film 
linking  the  exposed  surface  with  the  sub- 
soil water;  and  consequently,  surface 
tension  can  only  lift  the  water  so  far  as 
the  film  is  unbroken,  that  is,  as  far  as  the 
unstirred  soil  extends,  and  this  layer  is 
protected  from  evaporation  by  the  loose 
soil  above.  Thus,  when  a  soil-mulch  is 
84 


CONSERVATION  OF  SOIL  MOISTURE 

formed  the  capillary  channels  are  broken 
and  the  water  cannot  rise  into  the  loose 
layer  of  surface-soil  which  is  separated 
from  the  firm  soil  below  by  large  spaces, 
across  which  moisture  cannot  pass.  Ac- 
cordingly, King  writes:  "In  the  conser- 
vation of  soil  moisture  by  tillage  there  is 
no  way  of  developing  a  mulch  more  ef- 
fectively than  that  which  is  produced  by 
a  tool  working  in  the  manner  of  the 
plow— to  .completely  remove  a  layer  of 
soil  and  lay  it  down  again,  bottom  up,  in 
a  loose,  open  condition." 

In  the  humid  regions  of  America  it  has 
been  found  that  a  soil-mulch  of  a  depth 
of  three  inches  is  sufficient  to  conserve  the 
moisture  of  the  soil.  But  in  California, 
and  the  semi-arid  West,  fully  twice  that 
depth  is  necessary  for  proper  protection 
during  the  dry,  hot  season,  which  some- 
times lasts  for  three  to  six  months  at  a 
stretch.  This  is  particularly  true  of 
85 


DRY-FARMING 

orchard-cultivation.  For  where  the  culti- 
vation has  been  shallow — one  to  three 
inches — you  may  frequently  observe  that 
the  leaves  of  the  trees  wilt  badly  under 
the  hot  sun,  but  recover  later  on,  or  dur- 
ing the  cool  of  the  night-time,  whereas 
with  deep  cultivation  the  trees  do  not  ap- 
pear to  suffer  at  all,  even  during  the 
hottest  weather.  At  the  same  time,  in 
the  case  of  land  intended  for  small  grain 
crops,  a  three-inch  soil-mulch  is  prefer- 
able, as  otherwise  the  soil  is  apt  to  be- 
come too  dry  close  to  the  surface  where 
the  seed  germinates,  and  where  the  first 
roots  forage  for  both  food  and  moisture. 


86 


CHAPTER  IV 

RAINFALL  AND  EVAPORATION 

THE  agricultural  productivity  of 
any  region  is  primarily  governed 
by  the  nature  of  the  climate  and  the 
quality  of  the  soil.  For  example,  the 
rainfall  may  be  so  scant  or  the  growing 
season  so  short,  or  frosts  so  frequent  as 
to  make  farming  even  on  fertile  land 
more  or  less  impracticable.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  matter  how  favorable  the  climate 
may  be,  if  the  soil  is  so  compact  as  to 
retard  the  free  movement  of  air,  and 
water;  or  if  it  lacks  one  or  more  of  the 
essential  elements  of  plant-food,  crops 
cannot  be  successfully  grown.  Now  the 
climatic  factors  which  are  involved  in 
crop  production  are  temperature,  rain- 
87 


DRY-FARMING 

fall,  and  evaporation.  With  regard  to 
the  first  it  may  be  stated  that  wheat  and 
oats  will  stand  a  much  lower  temperature 
than  corn  (maize)  or  sorghum.  Again, 
some  regions  are  found  in  which  the  tem- 
perature is  so  high  that  wheat  does  not 
thrive.  For  this  reason  only  those  plants 
should  be  selected  which  are  well  adapted 
to  the  temperature  range  of  the  particu- 
lar region  in  which  they  are  to  be  grown. 
Now  in  dry-land  farming  the  most  im- 
portant problem  is  naturally  the  amount 
and  distribution  of  the  rainfall.  The 
rain  falling  in  the  course  of  a  year  is 
usually  measured  in  the  form  of  inches. 
This  amount  ranges  all  the  way  from 
nothing  or  a  mere  fraction  of  an  inch,  as 
in  portions  of  the  Andes  and  the  great 
African  and  Asian  deserts,  to  as  much 
as  600  inches,  or  fifty  feet,  at  Cherapun- 
dji  in  eastern  India.  In  studying  a 
rainfall  map  of  the  world  it  will  be  seen 
88 


RAINFALL  AND  EVAPORATION 

that  a  large  portion  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face is  arid.  This  term  is  commonly 
meant  to  imply  an  annual  average  of  less 
than  20  inches.  The  arid  region  thus  de- 
fined would  include,  in  the  United  States, 
most  of  the  country  lying  west  of  a  line 
drawn  through  North  Dakota  and 
Texas,  extending  northwest  into  Canada 
and  southward  into  Mexico;  while  in 
South  Africa  it  would  be  found  in  the 
Kalahari  Desert  and  in  some  portions  of 
the  Transvaal.  The  different  sections  of 
the  United  States  comprise  an  Arid  re- 
gion,1 with  a  rainfall  of  from  zero  to  20 
inches ;  a  Semi-arid  region  from  20  to  30 
inches ;  and  a  Humid  region  of  30  inches 
and  upward.  About  two  fifths  of  the 
United  States  is  more  or  less  arid  and 
must  be  irrigated  or  cultivated  by  dry- 
farm  methods.  But  as  Professor  Elwood 
Mead  remarks :  "If  every  drop  of  water 

1  The  driest  and  warmest  State  is  Arizona. 

91 


DRY-FARMING 

which  falls  on  the  mountain  summits 
could  be  utilized,  it  is  not  likely  that  more 
than  10  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  of  the 
arid  West  could  be  irrigated,  and  it  is 
certain  that,  because  of  physical  ob- 
stacles, it  will  never  be  possible  to  get 
water  to  even  this  small  percentage." 
This  statement  clearly  shows  what  a  vast 
tract  of  territory  in  America  still  re- 
mains to  be  reclaimed  by  dry-farming. 

Now,  although  it  would  appear  that  a 
great  deal  of  the  West  is  more  or  less 
arid,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  there 
is  a  heavy  fall  of  snow  during  the  winter 
over  a  very  large  area,  which  has  a  most 
beneficial  influence  on  the  physical  condi- 
tion of  the  soil.  Furthermore,  the  rain- 
fall which  in  any  given  region  may  be 
ample  for  certain  drought-resisting 
plants,  will  be  quite  inadequate  for  seeds 
which  have  come  from  more  humid  coun- 
tries, and  which  demand  a  much  larger 
92 


RAINFALL  AND  EVAPORATION 

amount  of  water  for  their  full  develop- 
ment. Hence  the  term  "dry-land  crops" 
simply  means  certain  plants  that  are  able 
to  thrive  and  give  good  returns  in  regions 
where  the  rainfall  is  low  or  irregular. 
Again,  it  is  commonly  said  that  the  cli- 
mate of  the  Great  Plains  region  is 
changing  and  becoming  drier  and  the 
same  is  popularly  supposed  to  be  true 
with  regard  to  the  rainfall  of  South 
Africa.1  But  is  this  really  so?  The  rec- 
ords compiled  by  Mr.  E.  C.  Chilcott  and 
Dr.  L.  J.  Briggs  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture,  are  worthy  of  the  close  at- 

1  In  the  Transvaal,  South  Africa,  the  rainfall  varies  from 
about  15  inches  at  Bloemhof  to  50  inches  in  the  Woodbush 
Forest.  The  dry-land  farmer  in  this  colony  has  there- 
fore a  good  rainfall  as  compared  with  the  dry-land  far- 
mer in  America.  With  regard  to  the  total  amount  of  rain, 
the  Transvaal  has  nothing  to  complain  of.  But  it  is  its 
unfortunate  distribution  that  creates  farming  difficulties. 
The  only  certain  rainfall  occurs  during  the  period  of  No- 
vember to  March.  Rains  are  indeed  common  in  October 
but  sometimes  do  not  come.  In  this  part  of  Africa  there 
is  no  snow. 

93 


DRY-FARMING 

tention  of  every  dry-farmer.  The  figures 
are  taken  from  the  records  of  the 
Weather  Bureau  for  the  Great  Plains 
area  for  the  past  thirty  years.  In  the 
year  1905,  a  season  of  excessive  rain,  the 
annual  average  for  the  Great  Plains  as  a 
whole  was  27  inches;  but  for  the  year 
1907  the  total  precipitation  for  the  same 
year  had  sunk  to  a  little  less  than  18 
inches.  Notwithstanding  this  apparent 
decrease,  Briggs  emphatically  states  that 
"there  is  no  foundation  for  the  statement 
which  has  been  made  so  often  that  the 
climate  of  the  Great  "Plains  as  far  as 
precipitation  is  concerned  is  permanently 
changed."  Further,  he  clearly  shows 
that  if  we  divide  the  precipitation  into 
ten-year  periods  and  take  the  average  for 
these  periods  that  the  rainfall  during  the 
years  1895-1905  exceeds  the  rainfall  for 
the  previous  ten  years  1885-1894,  which 
includes  the  great  drought  of  1893  and 
94 


RAINFALL  AND  EVAPORATION 

1894  (annual  average  15-16  inches),  by 
only  half  an  inch.  Thus  the  only  safe 
criterion  of  the  rainfall  of  any  region  is 
the  average  amount  for  a  period  of  at 
least  ten  years.  And  it  is  satisfactory  to 
reflect,  as  Briggs  remarks,  that  the  Settle- 
ment of  the  Great  Plains  has  been  made 
on  a  normal  rainfall  which  is  far  bet- 
ter than  an  agriculture  established  dur- 
ing a  series  of  abnormally  wet  or  dry 
years. 

Evaporation. 

So  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  Dr. 
Briggs  of  Washington  was  the  first  to 
call  attention  to  the  enormous  impor- 
tance of  evaporation  in  relation  to  dry- 
farming.  And  this  is  a  matter  of  equal 
if  not  greater  importance  to  the  South 
African  farmer  in  a  land  of  hot  suns, 
bare  veldt,  and  dry,  sweeping  winds.  To 
watch  a  terrific  thunder-storm,  to  see  riv- 
97 


DRY-FARMING 

ers  of  water  pouring  over  the  land,  and  a 
few  hours  later  to  walk  over  perfectly 
dry  ground  is  a  phenomenon  familiar  to 
every  farmer  in  the  semi-dry  zone.  This 
appalling  waste  is  mainly  due  to  hard 
impenetrable  soil— in  a  word  to  surface 
run-off;  and,  secondly,  to  the  sucking 
power  of  a  summer  sun. 

Evaporation  therefore  is  a  factor 
which  should  not  be  ignored  in  passing 
judgment  on  the  agricultural  produc- 
tiveness of  any  region.  By  the  term 
evaporation  is  meant  the  number  of 
inches  of  water  which  vaporizes  or  evapo- 
rates from  a  clean  water  surface  in  a 
freely  exposed  open  tank  during  a  given 
period.  Thus  the  annual  evaporation  is 
the  total  number  of  inches  of  water  which 
evaporates  during  the  year,  just  as  the 
precipitation  is  measured  by  the  total 
number  of  inches  of  water  falling  into  the 
tank,  as  rain  or  snow,  during  the  year. 
98 


RAINFALL  AND  EVAPORATION 

Evaporation  depends  upon  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  evaporating  surface,  the  dry- 
ness  of  the  air,  and  the  velocity  of  the 
wind.  The  hotter  the  day,  the  greater 
the  evaporation;  the  drier  the  day,  the 
greater  the  evaporation;  the  harder  the 
wind  blows,  the  greater  the  evaporation 
— the  ceaseless  sucking  up  of  moisture. 
The  amount  of  evaporation  from  an  open 
tank  of  water  is  thus  a  measure  of  the 
evaporation  of  that  locality.  The  higher 
the  evaporation  from  the  tank,  the 
greater  is  the  moisture  demand  made 
upon  the  soil.  Briggs  says:  "Settlers 
looking  into  the  possibilities  of  a  new 
country  inquire  only  regarding  the  rain- 
fall. The  evaporation  is  not  considered. 
This  is  doubtless  largely  due  to  the  un- 
fortunate fact  that  evaporation  data  are 
not  yet  generally  available.  Such  records 
would  be  of  great  value  to  the  settler.  In 
dry-farming  the  most  favorable  region, 
99 


DRY-FARMING 

other  factors  being  equal,  is  obviously  the 
one  with  the  lowest  evaporation.  The 
demands  upon  the  soil  are  here  the  small- 
est and  in  times  of  scanty  rainfall  the 
settler  has  a  proportionately  better 
chance  to  mature  a  fair  crop."  A  series 
of  evaporation  determinations  has  been 
made  recently  by  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  at  various  points  throughout 
the  West  during  the  six  months  of 
spring  and  summer.  These  tests  were 
made  by  means  of  a  freely  exposed 
tank  set  in  the  soil,  and  some  remarkable 
results  were  obtained.  At  North  Dakota, 
with  a  summer  rainfall  of  13  inches 
the  evaporation  was  30  inches  and  at 
Amarillo,  Texas,  during  the  same  period, 
with  a  summer  rainfall  of  13  inches,  the 
evaporation  was  54  inches.  Summarizing 
these  experiments,  Briggs  says :  "In  other 
words,  with  the  same  rainfall  in  North 
Dakota  and  at  Amarillo,  during  the 
100 


RAINFALL  AND  EVAPORATION 

growing  season,  the  man  at  Amarillo 
would  be  working  under  conditions  which 
are  practically  twice  as  severe  as  those  in 
North  Dakota.  Under  those  conditions, 
why  are  we  justified  in  talking  of  precipi- 
tation alone?  What  does  precipitation 
alone  mean  in  connection  with  such  fig- 
ures as  those?  If  we  assume  that  the 
precipitation  required  is  in  proportion  to 
the  evaporation,  then  the  man  at  Ama- 
rillo, in  order  not  to  have  to  work  harder 
to  conserve  the  moisture  than  the  man  in 
North  Dakota  would  need  practically 
twice  the  rainfall."  In  the  well-known 
desert  region  called  the  Staked  Plains  of 
Texas,  the  evaporation  is  very  much 
higher.  At  El  Paso  it  is  58  inches,  and 
at  Yuma,  Arizona,  it  is  56,  while  in  New 
Mexico  at  the  boundary  between  upper 
and  lower  California  it  reaches  the 
startling  figure  of  72  inches.  The  dry- 
land farmer  must  therefore  realize  that 
103 


DRY-FARMING 

the  annual  rainfall  is  not  the  only  factor 
to  be  considered  in  selecting  his  home- 
stead, since  the  greater  the  evaporation  in 
any  given  locality,  the  harder  will  it  be 
for  him  to  conserve  enough  moisture  to 
produce  his  crops. 

Finally  a  matter  which  should  be  care- 
fully studied  in  dry-farming  is  the  effect 
of  a  mountainous  locality  on  the  rainfall. 
The  following  sketch  will  make  this 
plain. 

The  town  of  Deseret,  Utah,  lies  well 
out  in  a  broad  valley,  which  is  too  dry  for 
farming  except  with  irrigation.  About 
thirty  miles  southeast  of  Deseret  is  the 
town  of  Fillmore,  which  lies  close  to  the 
western  slope  of  a  mountain  range,  the 
crest  of  which  is  10,000  feet  above  sea 
level.  The  total  annual  rainfall  at 
Deseret  is  7.7  inches  and  at  Fillmore  13.8 
inches,  a  difference  due  to  the  effect  of 
the  mountains.  Richfield  is  situated  only 
104 


RAINFALL  AND  EVAPORATION 

sixteen  miles  from  Fillmore,  but  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  mountain  range,  and 
here  the  average  annual  rainfall  is  only 
5.5  inches.  These  figures  clearly  show 
what  a  difference  the  intervention  of  a 
mountain  range  may  make  upon  the  rain- 
fall of  two  places  only  a  few  miles  apart. 


105 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

TILLAGE  is  the  most  important 
operation  in  dry-farming,  and 
upon  it  will  mainly  depend  the  success  or 
failure  of  the  crop.  The  modern  plow  is 
the  product  of  many  centuries  of  slow 
improvement,  and  during  this  time  it  has 
evolved  from  a  crooked  stick  to  an  imple- 
ment of  marvellous  efficiency.  One  of 
the  main  objects  of  plowing  is  to  leave 
the  soil  in  such  a  condition  that  but  little 
subsequent  tillage  will  be  needed  to  fit 
the  land  for  the  crop.  A  good  plow 
should  turn  over  the  furrow  slice  in  a 
loose  and  crumbling  condition  and  at  the 
same  moment  bury  the  weeds,  stubble 
and  trash.  In  this  way  the  labor  of  har- 
106 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

rowing  is  greatly  reduced;  whereas  flat- 
furrow  plowing  requires  a  great  deal  of 
harrowing  before  the  field  is  left  in  fine 
and  mellow  tilth. 

Depth  of  Plowing. 

The  dry -land  farmer  often  asks,  "How 
deep  should  I  plow?"  and  again,  "What 
is  deep  plowing?"  This  is  a  hard  ques- 
tion to  answer  without  some  precise 
knowledge  of  the  local  conditions  and  the 
nature  of  the  soil;  but  as  a  general  rule  in 
dry- farming  it  may  be  emphatically  said : 
Plow  deep.  Usually  deep  plowing 
means  anything  from  seven  to  ten  inches 
and  over.  Of  course  on  the  Plains  it  is 
not  always  possible  to  plow  deep.  The 
ground  may  be  too  hard,  or  perhaps  the 
farmer  has  too  few  horses  or  the  wrong 
kind  of  plow.  But  deep  plowing  is 
strongly  to  be  recommended  for  several 
reasons:  it  increases  the  water-holding 
107 


DRY-FARMING 

capacity  of  most  soils;  admits  sunlight 
and  air;  extends  the  root-feeding  area; 
prevents  light  soils  from  being  blown 
away ;  encourages  the  growth  of  soil-bac- 
teria; prevents  surface  washing  after 
heavy  rains,  and,  lastly,  enables  plants  to 
successfully  withstand  long  periods  of 
drought.  Broadly  speaking,  a  soil  that  is 
best  suited  to  dry-farming  is  also  one 
that  may  be  plowed  deeply,  but  the  most 
successful  results  have  been  obtained  in 
the  case  of  deep  uniform  sandy  loams. 
Deep  plowing  is  strongly  advocated  by 
the  dry-farmers  of  Utah,  Montana,  Kan- 
sas as  well  as  by  their  brethren  in  South 
Africa. 

In  some  cases,  however,  deep  plowing 
is  undesirable,  as  for  example  where  the 
soil  is  very  shallow  or  consists  of  a  cold 
and  heavy  clay.  Turning  up  this  sort  of 
sub-surface  soil  may  result  in  retarding, 
if  not  entirely  checking,  the  germination 
108 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

of  the  seed.  In  fact  it  may  be  a  fairly 
long  time  before  such  raw  land  becomes 
transformed  into  a  mellow  seed-bed.  But 
this  seldom  occurs  in  dry-farming,  as  the 
summer  fallow  affords  ample  time  for  the 
weathering  of  the  ground,  and  so  the  soil 
is  generally  well  aerated  before  the  crop 
is  planted.  If  the  land  is  plowed  year 
after  year  at  the  same  depth  the  sole  of 
the  furrow  becomes  packed  by  the 
smoothing  action  of  the  bottom  of  the 
plow,  as  well  as  by  the  tramping  of  the 
horses.  This  results  in  the  formation  of 
what  is  commonly  known  as  a  hard  pan 
or  plow-sole.  A  hard  pan  is  injurious  for 
three  reasons:  it  decreases  the  water-hold- 
ing capacity  of  the  soil;  retards  the 
growth  of  the  roots ;  and  checks  the  capil- 
lary rise  of  moisture  from  the  deeper 
layers  below.  It  is  thus  a  sound  plan  to 
vary  the  depth  of  plowing  every  two  or 
three  years.  Another  point  worth  noting 
111 


4 

DRY-FARMING 

is  to  have  the  plowed  land  as  long  as  pos- 
sible so  as  to  avoid  delay  in  turning  and 
too  much  tramping  at  the  corners. 

When  to  Plow. 

On  every  dry-farm  the  work  should  be 
so  arranged  that  the  plowing  can  be  done 
at  the  best  and  the  most  convenient  time 
of  the  year.  In  most  States  it  is  impos- 
sible to  plow  during  the  winter  season 
and  again  during  the  summer  when  the 
ground  has  become  so  hard  and  dry  that 
it  cannot  be  turned  over.  Moreover, 
other  imperative  farm  operations,  such  as 
seeding  and  harvesting,  may  preclude 
plowing.  Plowing,  therefore,  must  be 
done  when  the  work  of  the  farm  and  the 
physical  condition  of  the  soil  will  permit. 
Nevertheless,  with  good  management 
there  is  ample  time  in  the  three  seasons  of 
the  autumn,  spring,  and  summer.  In 
dry-farming  fall  plowing  usually  gives 
%  112 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

the  heaviest  crops  and  has  several  dis- 
tinct advantages  over  spring  plowing: 

(1)  It  enables  the  land  to  absorb  the 
winter  rains  and  snow,  and  so  retains  a 
great  deal  of  moisture. 

(2)  It  exposes  the  soil  to  the  disin- 
tegrating action  of  the  frost,  setting  free 
plant-food. 

(3)  It  permits  the  ground  to  settle 
and  so  tends  to  form  a  mellow  compact 
seed-bed. 

But  spring  plowing  will  remain  a  uni- 
versal practice  because  in  the  rush  of  har- 
vesting, threshing,  and  hauling  to  mar- 
ket, the  farmer  seldom  has  time  to  finish 
the  whole  of  his  plowing  in  the  fall.  In 
the  springtime  the  land  is  generally  in  a 
capital  condition  for  plowing,  but  for  the 
best  results  two  things  are  essential:  (a) 
packing  the  seed-bed  and  (b)  following 
with  a  harrow  to  form  a  soil-mulch. 
Summer  plowing  may  be  done  after  the 
113 


DRY-FARMING 

seeding  is  over  and  before  the  harvest 
begins,  if  the  ground  is  in  a  suitable 
state.  In  Montana,  as  well  as  in  some 
other  sections,  the  rainy  season  makes 
early-  to  mid-summer  a  favorable  time 
to  plow  for  the  summer  fallow  and  fall 
grains.  It  is  also  a  particularly  good 
season  for  breaking  up  new  ground.  In 
breaking  care  should  be  taken  to  lay  the 
furrows  down  evenly  and  then  to  roll  or 
pack  them  close  to  the  sub-soil,  following 
immediately  with  the  harrow  to  fill  up  the 
spaces  and  form  a  surface-mulch.  This 
will  tend  to  check  the  excessive  evapora- 
tion which  goes  on  during  the  hot  days 
of  summer.  Sod  ground  can  be  plowed 
with  safety  when  considerably  wetter 
than  old  land. 

On  Plows. 

The  ordinary  moldboard  plow  does 
better  work  than  the  disc  plow  and  should 
114 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

be  used  for  breaking  the  prairie.  But 
disc  plows  are  now  widely  used  and  have 
a  recognized  place  on  the  dry-farm. 
They  do  good  work  in  old  lands,  the 
draft  is  lighter,  and  they  can  be  used  in 
drier  soil  than  is  practicable  with  the 
moldboard.  A  disc  plow,  if  run  deep, 
is  of  special  value  in  breaking  up  the 
plow-sole  which  is  apt  to  be  formed  by 
the  too  constant  use  of  the  moldboard 
plow  set  at  the  same  depth  year  after 
year.  Many  farmers,  however,  try  to  cut 
too  wide  a  furrow  with  their  disc  plow, 
which  results  in  a  poor  job.  Gang  plows 
save  much  time  and  labor  and  enable  one 
man  to  keep  several  horses  at  work.  Rod- 
breaker  plows  in  which  steel  rods  take 
the  place  of  the  solid  moldboard  have 
been  found  useful  in  turning  over  virgin 
land.  Subsoil  plows  are  intended  to 
loosen  and  pulverize  the  subsoil  without 
inverting  it  or  bringing  it  to  the  surface. 
115 


DRY-FARMING 

But  at  the  present  time  they  are  not 
much  used  in  dry-farming.  Neverthe- 
less, such  plows  are  sometimes  used  to 
good  purpose.  For  example,  heavy  clays 
that  require  underdrainage  are  generally 
benefited  by  subsoiling,  or  they  may  be 
used  for  breaking  up  a  hard  pan  or  plow- 
sole.  In  subsoiling  it  is  customary  to 
turn  the  surface  with  a  common  stirring 
plow  and  to  follow  in  this  furrow  with 
the  subsoil  plow.  This  loosens  the  soil  to 
a  depth  of  18  to  24  inches  from  the  top  of 
the  ground. 

In  subsoiling  dry  fields,  however,  it 
will  often  be  better  to  use  a  plow  with 
a  subsoiling  attachment,  running  it  a 
few  inches  below  the  bottom  of  the  fur- 
row and  so  gradually  getting  to  the  de- 
sired depth  by  plowing  year  after  year. 
By  this  method  an  excellent  seed-bed 
may  be  secured. 

116 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

Harrowing. 

After  plowing  the  most  important 
operation  in  the  dry-farm  is  the  constant 
use  of  the  harrow.  The  land  should  al- 
ways be  harrowed  the  same  day  that  it  is 
plowed.  The  chief  objects  of  harrowing 
are:  to  make  a  fine  and  mellow  seed-bed, 
to  warm  the  soil,  to  kill  weeds,  to  prevent 
the  evaporation  of  soil  moisture,  to  retain 
the  rains,  and  to  encourage  the  germ  life 
that  is  so  essential  to  fertility.  In  har- 
rowing and  plowing,  let  me  state  again, 
the  soil  should  be  taken  at  the  right  time, 
that  is  to  say,  when  the  land  is  moist — 
neither  too  wet  nor  too  dry.  Harrowing 
land  that  is  inclined  to  be  wet,  or  having 
furrows  with  a  glazed  appearance,  will 
injure  the  mechanical  texture  of  soil.  It 
is  better,  therefore,  to  lose  some  of  the 
water  in  the  soil  by  evaporation  rather 
than  to  run  the  risk  of  harming  the  land. 
All  over  the  West  it  is  a  common  practice 
117 


DRY-FARMING 

to  harrow  the  small  grains — wheat,  oats, 
etc., — in  the  spring.  This  is  especially 
beneficial  if  heavy  rains  have  firmed  and 
puddled  the  soil,  destroying  the  mulch  of 
mellow  earth.  The  weeder  is  better 
suited  for  harrowing  wheat  or  other  small 
grain  than  the  common  straight-tooth  or 
slanting-tooth  harrow ;  but  if  the  ground 
is  reasonably  firm  the  ordinary  light  har- 
row will  do  good  work.  Every  farmer 
should  have  a  harrow  with  levers  by 
which  he  can  regulate  the  slant  of  the 
teeth. 

Mr.  George  L.  Farrell,  who  has  grown 
wheat  for  forty  years  in  the  Cache  Val- 
ley, Utah,  was  once  asked  at  a  farmers' 
institute  what  he  would  do  if  the  grain 
were  too  thin.  "Harrow  it,"  he  replied. 
"But  what  would  you  do  if  it  were  too 
thick?"  "Harrow  it,"  came  the  same 
reply.  And  he  was  right  in  both  cases. 
If  the  grain  is  too  thin,  tilt  the  teeth  of 
118 


A  HAY  AND  GRAIN   DERRICK 
Used  for  Stacking  Hay  and  Wheat  in  the  Cache  Valley,  Utah 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

the  harrow  backward,  and  the  harrowing 
will  tend  to  make  the  wheat  plants 
"stool"  out  better  and  give  a  much  better 
stand.  If  the  grain  is  too  thick,  run  the 
sharp  iron  teeth  straight,  cut  out  some 
of  the  plants,  and  at  the  same  time  form 
a  mulch,  which  cannot  fail  to  be  of  benefit 
to  the  crop.  In  Utah  it  is  usual  to  har- 
row the  grain  from  three  to  five  times 
during  the  growing  season  and  thus  the 
surface  soil  is  prevented  from  caking  and 
the  fields  kept  free  from  weeds.  It  does 
not  pay  to  use  a  two-horse  harrow  on 
large  fields.  Four-horse  tools  of  all  sorts 
are  far  more  economical.  With  a  three- 
section  harrow  and  four  horses  a  man  or 
boy  can  cover  over  thirty  acres  a  day, 
which  makes  it  possible  during  spring 
and  summer  to  till  a  fairly  large  area  of 
land. 

There  are  several  excellent  implements 
for  harrowing,  the  most  noted  being  the 
121 


DRY-FARMING 

disc  harrow,  the  Acme  harrow,  the  spike- 
tooth  and  spring-tooth  harrow.  The  disc 
harrow  is  an  absolutely  indispensable  tool 
for  dry-farming.  Under  ordinary  con- 
ditions discs  of  fourteen  inches  diameter 
do  much  better  work  than  those  of  eigh- 
teen or  twenty  inches.  The  disc  should 
be  used  to  break  up  the  surface-sod  or 
stubble  immediately  after  the  harvest,  for 
where  this  is  done  it  will  be  found  that 
plowing  will  produce  a  much  better  seed- 
bed. Turning  under  the  disked  surface 
also  leaves  less  air  space  and  the  seed-bed 
is  made  more  compact  and  mellow.  The 
disc  is  also  useful  in  killing  weeds  on 
summer  fallow  lands,  but  it  must  be  used 
when  the  weeds  are  small,  for  it  will 
merely  stimulate  the  growth  of  the  larger 
weeds.  Always  lap  the  disc  one  half, 
which  double-discs  the  ground  and  leaves 
it  level.  The  disc  is  especially  useful  in 
cleaning  old  alfalfa  (lucerne)  fields;  and 
122 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

the  new  alfalfa  renovator— an  implement 
consisting  of  a  series  of  spikes  arranged 
in  disc  form — has  given  excellent  results. 
Other  types  of  harrows  such  as  the  Acme 
and  the  spring-tooth  are  useful  in  form- 
ing the  soil-mulch.  The  former  is  de- 
sirable for  shallow  surface  cultivation 
and  the  latter  for  harrowing  compact  and 
tough  soils. 

In  dry-farming  it  is  not  necessary  to 
harrow  the  land  after  every  small  rain, 
but  it  should  not  be  delayed  until  the 
ground  becomes  baked  and  hard;  and  it 
must  certainly  be  done  after  every  heavy 
rain  or  melting  snow  as  soon  as  the  soil  is 
in  a  fit  state  to  be  tilled.  In  short,  there 
are  few  crops  that  will  not  be  vastly  im- 
proved by  timely  harrowing.  Corn,  and 
any  of  the  small  grains,  may  be  harrowed 
until  they  are  four  inches  or  even  more 
in  height.  In  South  Africa,  McLaren, 
who  raises  large  quantities  of  corn 
123 


DRY-FARMING 

(maize)  by  steam  cultivation,  has  given 
up  cultivation  between  the  rows  in  favor 
of  harrowing.  This  means  a  great  sav- 
ing of  time  and  labor.  He  harrows  until 
the  corn  is  8  to  10,  or  even  12  inches  in 
height  with  most  satisfactory  results.  ' 
Furthermore  the  harrow  may  be  profit- 
ably used  for  many  different  sorts  of 
farm  work,  such  as  harrowing  native 
ranges,  meadows  and  pastures  to  encour- 
age the  growth  of  the  finer  and  sweeter 
grasses,  and  also  such  lands  as  may  be 
infested  with  cut-worms,  army-worms, 
corn  grubs,  or  grasshoppers.  As  a  Wes- 
tern writer  well  remarks:  "When  you 
cannot  think  of  any  more  important 
work,  go  to  the  field  and  harrow." 

Listing. 

In  Kansas  the  practice  of  listing  for 
corn  is  very  common  in  dry-farming. 
The  lister  is  simply  a  right-  and  left-hand 
124 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

plow  joined  together  at  the  bar  which 
throws  the  soil  out  each  way,  leaving 
an  open  furrow.  The  corn  is  sown  in  the 
bottom  of  this  furrow  either  by  a  drill  at- 
tachment or  by  a  separate  drill.  It  is 
most  successful  in  dry  years.  In  wet 
years  listed  corn  suffers  from  washing 
and  from  the  rain  gathering  in  the  fur- 
rows. The  first  cultivation  is  given  with 
a  spike-tooth  harrow  as  soon  as  weeds 
start  on  the  top  of  the  ridges.  This  rolls 
a  little  fine  soil  down  into  the  furrows. 
Later  tillage  sends  more  of  the  soil  into 
the  furrows  until  they  are  finally  filled 
and  the  ground  is  left  quite  level.  This 
filling  of  the  furrows  places  the  root-sys- 
tem several  inches  deeper  than  it  would 
have  been  had  the  ground  been  plowed  in 
the  ordinary  way  and  the  planting  done 
on  a  level  surface.  While  listed  corn 
stands  the  drought  better  than  that 
planted  on  level,  plowed  ground,  this 
7  125 


DRY-FARMING 

practice  is  not  adapted  to  dry-farming  in 
a  region  where  the  rainfall  is  fairly 
heavy;1  since  the  injury  caused  by  stand- 
ing water  may  be  greater  than  the  gain 
from  deep  planting.  Further,  as  the  seed 
is  planted  in  the  bottom  of  the  freshly 
turned  furrow  where  the  soil  is  not  as 
warm  as  close  to  the  surface,  listing 
should  not  be  begun  before  the  seed-bed 
is  sufficiently  warm. 

Cultivation. 

Cultivation  is  a  very  important  opera- 
tion, especially  with  such  crops  as  corn, 
and  it  should  be  continued  until  late  in 
the  season,  but  the  first  cultivation  may 
be  deeper  than  the  later  ones.  How  often 
to  cultivate  depends  upon  the  nature  of 

1  It  is  sometimes  said  that  in  localities  where  the  rainfall 
is  over  15  or  20  or  25  inches  per  annum  it  is  incorrect  to 
speak  of  dry-farming.  This  is  clearly  a  misconception,  for 
dry-farming  is  a  relative  term  and  may  be  followed  with 
advantage  whether  the  annual  precipitation  be  15,  25, 
30  inches  or  over. 

126 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

the  soil,  the  dryness  of  the  season,  and 
the  prevalence  of  weeds.  It  is  a  local  and 
personal  problem,  but  few  farmers  fully 
realize  the  loss  of  moisture  caused  by  the 
growth  of  weeds.  It  is  easy  to  tell  when 
it  will  pay  to  cultivate.  You  have  only  to 
examine  the  surface  soil.  If  it  has  a  hard, 
baked  appearance,  or  even  a  thin  crust, 
cultivation  should  be  done  at  once,  for 
soil  water  is  passing  off  rapidly  into  the 
air  wherever  the  surface  soil  is  hard. 
There  is  no  hard-and-fast  rule  for  the 
number  of  cultivations  to  be  given  in  a 
season.  Cultivate  often  enough  to  make 
the  surface  soil  mellow,  weedless  and  free 
from  a  crust.  This  may  take  six  culti- 
vations or  twelve.  Note  when  the  corn 
leaves  begin  to  curl  in  the  heat  of  the  day, 
or  the  potatoes  to  shrivel.  Then  is  the 
time  for  prompt  and  energetic  cultiva- 
tion. Finally,  all  cultivation  should  be 
directed  to  establishing  a  moisture-saving 
127 


DRY-FARMING 

fallow  which  may  be  maintained  for  pe- 
riods of  three  months,  six  months,  or  one 
year.  Such  a  fallow  is  to  be  well 
plowed  in  the  first  place  and  then  kept 
constantly  tilled  to  prevent  the  formation 
of  a  soil-crust.  This  fallow  results  in 
four  things:  (a)  storage  of  rainfall,  (b) 
destroys  weeds,  (c)  admits  sunshine  and 
air,  (d)  encourages  beneficial  soil-germs. 

Weeding. 

The  weeder  is  a  modified  harrow  hav- 
ing one  row,  or  more,  of  long  curved, 
flexible  teeth  which  stir  the  ground  after 
the  manner  of  a  hay-rake.  It  is  a  most 
valuable  implement  for  rapid  and  easy 
harrowing  and  should  find  a  place  on 
every  dry-farm.  Weeders  can  be  em- 
ployed on  wheat  fields  where  the  plants 
have  become  too  large  for  the  safe  use  of 
the  ordinary  steel-tooth  harrow.  On 
large  farms  it  is  customary  to  use  f our- 
128 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

horse  gang  weeders  which  cover  the 
ground  very  rapidly.  Weeders  are  use- 
ful for  three  purposes —  (a)  to  kill  very 
young  weeds,  (b)  to  preserve  a  shallow 
mulch,  (c)  to  cover  broadcasted  seed.  A 
weeder  is  not  effective  unless  it  is  used 
often  enough  to  prevent  any  weeds  from 
getting  too  large  to  be  destroyed.  Since 
the  weeder  stirs  the  soil  only  an  inch  and 
a  half  to  two  inches  deep,  it  should  be 
supplemented  by  the  cultivator,  when- 
ever the  soil  gets  hard. 

Rolling. 

In  dry-land  farming  rolling  is  very 
important,  because  it  compacts  the  sur- 
face soil  and  brings  the  particles  closer 
together,  so  that  the  film  water  passes  up 
more  readily  by  capillary  attraction. 
While  passing  upward  it  comes  in  con- 
tact with  the  roots  of  the  plants  and  is  ab- 
sorbed by  them,  but  this  water  will  pass 
129 


DRY-FARMING 

away  from  the  surface  unless  it  is  har- 
rowed to  establish  a  soil-mulch.  The  soil 
in  a  field  that  has  been  rolled  is  more 
moist  on  the  top  than  if  it  had  not  been 
rolled,  but  the  soil  below  the  compacted 
portion  is  much  drier  than  it  would  have 
been  had  the  surface  been  left  loose. 
That  is  to  say,  the  upper  five  or  six  inches 
of  soil  have  been  made  more  moist  by 
rolling,  but  at  the  expense  of  the  soil 
beneath. 

Part  of  the  loss  of  moisture  from 
rolled  soil  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  sur- 
face is  left  very  smooth  and  level,  and 
offers  less  obstruction  to  the  wind.  The 
velocity  with  which  the  wind  passes  over 
rolled  ground  may  be  nearly  twice  as 
great  as  that  over  rough  unrolled 
ground.  This  means  that  much  more 
moisture  is  sucked  up  from  the  soil  by 
the  wind.  The  chief  purpose  of  rolling 
in  dry-land  farming  is  to  increase  the 
130 


1  1 

5-       > 


18 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

supply  of  moisture  for  the  seeds,  but,  of 
course,  it  is  also  useful  in  crushing  lumps 
on  soils  which  become  cloddy.  Great 
care,  however,  must  be  taken  not  to  roll 
clayey  soils  when  they  are  wet,  as  they 
are  liable  to  become  cemented  into  hard 
clods.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that 
rolling  accomplishes  three  very  useful 
purposes:  (a)  it  increases  the  water- 
holding  capacity  of  light  soils,  (b)  it  aids 
the  germination  of  seeds,  and  (c)  crushes 
the  lumps  in  cloddy  soils.  A  tendency 
to-day,  in  America  at  least,  is  to  restrict 
the  use  of  the  roller  to  light  soils  in  order 
to  make  the  soil  firm,  and  to  use  the  im- 
plement called  the  planker  on  heavy  soils 
where  fining  the  soil  is  the  end  desired. 

Planking  and  Packing. 

The  planker  is  made  by  bolting  four 
3-inch  planks  to  two  cross-pieces  so  as  to 
present  the  sharp  edge  of  each  plank  to 
133 


DRY-FARMING 

the  ground.  This  implement  is  very 
useful  in  smoothing  the  surface  and 
crushing  clods.  Its  action  is  somewhat 
like  that  of  a  roller,  but  instead  of  press- 
ing down  vertically  it  slides  along  the 
field  shaving  off  the  uneven  places  and 
filling  up  the  hollows.  As  a  pulverizer 
and  clod  crusher  it  is  superior  to  the 
roller,  but  its  packing  action  is  not  as 
great.  The  principle  of  packing  com- 
bined with  the  soil-mulch  is  seen  when 
the  gardener  presses  down  the  soil 
around  his  vegetables  and  covers  them 
then  with  loose  soil,  when  the  fruit- 
grower stamps  the  earth  around  the  roots 
of  the  fruit  tree  but  leaves  it  loose  on  top, 
and  when  the  florist  presses  his  seed  into 
the  soil,  but  scatters  a  little  loose  earth  in 
the  pot.  The  special  implement  called 
the  sub-surface  packer  which  has  been 
devised  for  this  work  is  described  in  the 
next  chapter. 

134 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

Seeding. 

Having  secured  a  good  seed-bed  by 
deep  plowing,  harrowing  and  packing,  it 
is  now  time  to  take  up  the  question  of 
seeding.  In  dry-farming  all  cereals  are 
now  put  in  with  the  drill  and  broadcast- 
ing has  been  entirely  discarded.  With  a 
drill  the  seed  can  be  placed  evenly  and 
the  depth  to  which  it  is  to  be  sown  regu- 
lated at  will.  If  the  land  has  been  sum- 
mer-fallowed there  will  usually  be  an 
earth-mulch  on  the  surface  of  from  three 
to  six  inches  in  depth.  In  this  case  the 
seed  should  be  sown  down  below  the 
mulch  and  placed  in  the  moist  soil.  The 
young  plants  can  easily  strike  upwards 
through  several  inches  of  loose  earth,  and 
if  the  seed  is  sown  deep  the  roots  enter  at 
once  into  the  moist  soil.  There  are  a 
number  of  excellent  drills  on  the  market 
and  the  choice  of  a  seeder  is  largely  a 
matter  of  personal  opinion.  The  Mon- 
135 


DRY-FARMING 

tana  Experiment  Station  has  invariably 
secured  the  best  results  with  a  disc  press- 
drill  which  puts  the  seed  in  very  deeply 
and  presses  down  the  soil.  A  press-drill 
which  firms  the  moist  earth  about  the 
seed  will  give  quicker  germination,  and  a 
better  stand  of  grain  than  a  drill  which 
simply  sows  the  seed  in  loose  soil.  Again, 
with  the  press-drill  there  is  a  great  saving 
of  seed  and  where  a  large  area  is  being 
sown  this  is  an  important  item,  more 
especially  if  first-class  seed  is  used.  The 
farmer  who  sows  alfalfa  broadcast  often 
sows  from  20  to  40  pounds  per  acre, 
whereas,  if  he  employed  a  press-drill,  from 
8  to  12  Ibs.  would  be  ample.  The  press 
drill  has  also  given  good  results  on  the 
Wyoming  dry-farms.  Dr.  V.  T.  Cooke 
of  Cheyenne  writes:  "The  press-drill  is 
one  of  the  essentials  in  dry-farming. 
This  may  be  either  of  the  shoe  or  the  disc 
type.  The  disc-drill  has  some  advan- 
136 


WHEAT  GROWN  CONTINUOUSLY,  THIRD  CROP,  YIELD  4   BUSHELS  PER  ACRE, 
FORSYTH  DRY-FARM.  MONTANA 

Showing  evil  effect  of  constant  cropping-  without  summer  fallowing  or  rotation 


WHEAT  AFTER  A  MOISTURE-SAVING  FALLOW,  YIELD  25  BUSHELS  PER  ACRE, 
FORSYTH  DRY-FARM,  MONTANA 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

tages  where  there  is  much  stubble  or  ref- 
use, like  coarse  manure  on  the  ground, 
but  on  well-prepared  summer-fallow 
ground  the  shoe -drill  with  press  wheels 
following  to  firmly  pack  the  seed  prob- 
ably does  the  best  work.  In  places  where 
there  are  heavy  clay  soils  to  contend  with 
a  double  press  wheel  should  be  used  in- 
stead of  the  single  press  wheel  ordinarily 
placed  on  these  drills.  If  the  soil  bakes 
the  double  press  wheel  will  leave  a  crack 
or  opening  in  the  center  directly  over  the 
seed  through  which  the  germinating 
plantlets  can  push  their  way  out  of  the 
ground." 

In  the  case  of  a  drill  that  does  not 
press  the  soil  about  the  seed,  germina- 
tion may  be  hastened  by  following  the 
seeder  with  a  roller  and  then  harrowing 
to  check  evaporation  and  prevent  blow- 
ing. The  proper  depth  of  seeding  will 
naturally  depend  on  the  character  and 
139 


DRY-FARMING 

condition  of  the  soil.  But  as  a  general 
rule  in  dry- farming  the  writer  recom- 
mends deep  seeding.  However,  land  that 
is  fall-plowed  and  well-settled  need  not 
be  seeded  as  deep  as  loose  spring- 
plowed  ground.  Again,  the  subsurface 
packer  makes  it  possible  to  sow  shallower 
than  where  it  is  not  used.  The  best 
depth  is  the  nearest  point  to  the  surface 
at  which  perfect  sprouting  is  possible,  or, 
in  other  words,  where  the  right  degree  of 
warmth  and  moisture  is  present.  But 
whether  the  seed  is  put  in  2,  4,  or  6  inches 
deep  is  a  purely  local  problem  of  which 
the  farmer  himself  must  be  the  best 
judge. 

Lastly,  thin  seeding.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  try  and  compute  the  enor- 
mous annual  waste  of  seed  in  the  semi- 
arid  regions  of  the  West.  Unfortu- 
nately, not  only  does  this  superfluous 
seed  represent  a  large  loss  in  ready  cash, 
140 


BARLEY  GROWN  CONTINUOUSLY,  THIRD  CROP,  YIELD  6  BUSHELS  PER  ACRE, 

FORSYTH  DRY-FARM,  MONTANA 
Showing  evil  effect  of  constant  cropping  without  summer  fallowing  or  rotation 


BARLEY  AFTER  A  MOISTURE-SAVING  FALLOW,  YIELD  25  BUSHELS  PER  ACRE: 
FORSYTH  DRY-FARM,  MONTANA 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  TILLAGE 

but  it  also  means  that  the  soil  is  robbed 
of  its  much  needed  moisture,  which  too 
often  results  in  crop  failure.  In  dry- 
farming  light  seeding  almost  always 
gives  the  heaviest  yields :  and  the  old  cus- 
tom of  sowing  1%  to  2  bushels  of  grain 
to  the  acre  is  altogether  wrong.  In  a 
recent  experiment  carried  out  by  the 
Montana  Experiment  Station  with 
spring  wheat,  oats,  and  barley,  it  was 
found  that  three  pecks  of  seed  (45  Ibs.) 
gave  better  results  than  larger  quantities. 
Again,  in  Utah,  the  heaviest  yields  of 
grain  have  been  obtained  with  from  two 
to  four  pecks  (30-60  Ibs.)  of  seed,  while 
Campbell  recommends  the  following 
amounts  for  well-fitted  summer-tilled 
fields:  winter  wheat  18  to  20  pounds; 
spring  wheat  20  to  25  pounds;  barley  35 
to  40  pounds  per  acre.  Further,  Cooke  of 
Wyoming  writes:  "It  is  a  recognized  fact 
that  we  have  been  making  the  very 
143 


DRY-FARMING 

serious  mistake  of  sowing  too  much  seed 
per  acre.  The  experience  of  the  most 
intelligent  farmers  shows  that  by  sowing 
thirty  to  forty  pounds  of  wheat  per  acre 
in  the  fall  better  results  will  be  obtained 
than  with  more  seed."  In  short  if  the 
farmer  has  carefully  selected  his  seed  and 
properly  tilled  his  ground,  he  will  usually 
find  that  from  two  to  three  pecks  of  seed 
are  ample  for  semi-arid  lands. 


144 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CAMPBELL  SYSTEM 

THE  Campbell  system  of  scientific  soil 
culture,  or  as  it  is  more  commonly 
called  the  Campbell  method  of  dry-farm- 
ing, originated  with  Mr.  Hardy  W. 
Campbell  of  Lincoln,  Nebraska.  Camp- 
bell has  done  much  to  popularize  dry- 
farming,  but  he  must  be  ranked  as  an 
agricultural  evangelist  rather  than  as  an 
experimenter.  Both  on  the  public  plat- 
form and  in  the  pages  of  his  periodicals 
his  statements  at  times  are  somewhat 
loose  and  misleading.  And  to  contend 
that  the  Campbell  system  is  the  sole 
method  of  dry-farming  is  of  course  ab- 
surd. Nevertheless  it  is  not  just  to  dis- 
145 


DRY-FARMING 

parage  Campbell's  missionary  work 
among  the  farmers  of  the  West.  It  is 
often  said,  and  truly  so,  that  Jethro  Tull 
was  the  first  exponent  of  the  so-called 
Campbell  system  of  soil  culture;  but  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  Tull  did  not 
work  under  semi-arid  conditions,  and, 
secondly,  that  although  his  practice  was 
successful  his  theories  were  erroneous. 
Be  that  as  it  may  the  fact  remains  that  a 
great  number  of  western  farmers  be- 
lieve in  Campbell's  teaching  and  many 
have  followed  his  system  or  like  methods 
with  success. 

The  machine  called  the  Campbell  sub- 
surface packer,  under  certain  conditions, 
gives  good  results;  but  it  must  be  used 
with  care.  It  is  seldom  of  much  use  on 
soil  that  has  had  time  to  settle  and  be- 
come packed.  It  is  therefore  more 
valuable  on  spring  than  on  fall  plow- 
ing, and  where  loose  manure  has  been 
146 


THE  CAMPBELL  SYSTEM 

applied  to  the  land.  On  wet,  clayey 
ground  it  may  seriously  injure  the  me- 
chanical and  physical  texture  of  the  soil. 
The  story  of  the  origin  of  the  Camp- 
bell system1  of  dry-farming  is  as  fol- 
lows: In  the  year  1879  Mr.  Campbell 
migrated  from  New  England  and  settled 
in  what  was  then  known  as  the  Territory 
of  Dakota — since  divided  into  the  two 
States  of  North  and  South  Dakota.  His 
agricultural  career  was  not  startling, 
merely  the  hard,  grim  struggle  of  the 
prairie  farmer;  wheat-growing  year  in 
and  year  out;  alternate  failure  and  suc- 
cess, and  always  the  fear  of  drought,  the 
blizzard,  rust,  hail,  and  frost.  At  that 
time  it  was  widely  stated  that  the  com- 
mon failure  of  the  wheat  crop  was  due  to 
the  exhaustion  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil 
by  the  heavy  crops  of  the  first  few  years, 

1  The  following  account  of  this  particular  method  of  dry- 
farming  is  taken  from  Campbell's  Manual  of  Scientific 
Soil  Culture,  an  interesting  but  diffusely  written  volume. 

8  147 


DRY-FARMING 

and,  further,  that  these  lands  would  never 
yield  large  crops  again.  Mr.  Campbell 
was  convinced  that  this  was  a  false 
notion,  and  that  the  true  explanation— 
the  key  to  the  problem— would  be  found 
in  a  better  and  a  more  scientific  system  of 
soil  culture.  It  was  not  until  the  year 
1892  that  any  definite  results  were 
obtained.  This  was  a  period  of  great  ac- 
tivity in  the  study  of  the  soil,  and  Camp- 
bell was  able  to  make  use  of  the 
investigations  of  Hilgard  of  California, 
of  King  and  Goff  in  Wisconsin,  and  of 
the  illuminating  writings  of  Roberts  and 
Bailey  of  Cornell. 

The  Sub-surface  Packer. 

The  invention  of  the  Campbell  sub- 
surface packer  may  be  traced  to  a  simple 
observation.  In  very  dry  seasons  Mr. 
Campbell  'perceived  that  the  growth  of 
the  grain  was  always  better  and  thriftier 
148 


THE  CAMPBELL  SYSTEM 

in  certain  places;  as,  for  example,  where 
the  soil  was  compacted  when  a  horse 
stepped  over  the  plowed  field  leaving 
the  impress  of  its  hoof -prints  on  land 
which  was  afterwards  sown  to  wheat ;  or, 
perchance,  where  the  wheel  of  a  heavy 
farm  wagon  had  rolled  over  the  furrow- 
slice,  there  the  growth  of  the  grain  was 
always  taller,  darker,  healthier  in  color, 
wide-leaved,  giving  a  greater  stooling 
and  larger  heads.  This  was  the  first  great 
principle,  namely,  that  the  soil  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  furrow  had  been  made 
firm  and  fine— in  a  word,  compacted. 
But  Mr.  Campbell  also  noted  that  wher- 
ever the  horse  had  lifted  his  foot  a  little 
loose  earth  was  left  behind;  just  as,  in 
like  manner,  the  rolling  of  the  wagon 
wheel  let  fall  a  little  loose  soil.  Here  was 
the  second  great  principle,  namely,  the 
formation  of  the  "soil"  or  "earth -mulch." 
Thus  the  purpose  of  the  Campbell  sub- 
149 


DRY-FARMING 

surface  packer  was  simply  to  imitate  the 
horse-foot  track  in  the  entire  field  by 
firming  the  lower  part  of  the  furrow- 
slice  and  leaving  the  top  portion  loose  to 
form  a  soil-mulch.  The  effect  of  sub- 
surface packing,  therefore,  is  to  draw 
the  moisture  from  the  deeper  strata  be- 
low, just  as  is  the  case  with  the  ordinary 
roller;  but,  further,  and  most  important, 
to  check  the  evaporation  of  the  moisture 
from  the  surface  by  the  formation  of  an 
earth  blanket  or  soil-mulch.  This  upward 
passage  of  water  brought  about  by  sub- 
surface packing  is  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance in  the  long  dry  periods  so  common 
in  western  America  and  South  Africa. 

Mr.  Campbell  writes :  "When  we  reach 
a  point  in  the  extreme  heated  portion  of 
the  last  afternoon  prior  to  a  heavy  rain, 
when  our  supply  of  moisture  is  beginning 
to  shorten,  the  fact  that  we  have  by  this 
sub-surface  packing  been  able  to  lift  the 
150 


THE  CAMPBELL  SYSTEM 

water  stored  below  a  little  faster  may  be 
the  means  of  doubling  or  trebling  the 
yield." 

In  a  word  the  proper  use  of  the  sub- 
surface packer  puts  the  soil  into  a  firm 
and  mellow  state,  whilst  the  harrow 
forms  a  fine  loose  mulch  of  some  two  or 
more  inches  deep,  and  the  drill  sets  the 
seed  in  a  fine,  firm,  moist,  mellow  bed— 
an  ideal  place  for  rapid  and  vigorous 
sprouting.  According  to  Mr.  Campbell, 
any  one  who  breaks  prairie  lands  and 
plants  them  without  first  devoting  a  full 
season  to  careful  cultivation  in  order  to 
get  the  soil  in  the  proper  physical  condi- 
tion for  the  promotion  of  plant  growth, 
and  also  to  store  a  sufficient  amount  of 
moisture  within  reach  of  the  plant  roots 
to  carry  the  growing  crop  through  a  pro- 
tracted drought  is  simply  inviting  failure, 
should  a  season  of  unusual  dryness  fol- 
low. Summing  up,  it  may  be  said  that 
151 


DRY-FARMING 

sub-surface  packing  or  the  fine  firm  fit- 
ting of  the  lower  portion  of  the  furrow- 
slice  results  in  three  things:  (1)  The 
water-holding  capacity — or  soil  reservoir 
— where  the  main  roots  grow  is  enlarged ; 
(2)  the  movement  of  the  moisture  from 
the  lower  and  deeper  soil  layers  to  the 
roots  of  the  plants  is  quickened;  (3)  the 
area  of  the  feeding  roots  is  greatly  ex- 
tended. These  three  factors  usually  re- 
sult in  carrying  a  crop  successfully 
through  a  long,  hot,  dry  period ;  whereas 
a  crop  grown  under  the  ordinary  meth- 
ods would  be  seriously  stunted  in  growth 
if,  indeed,  it  survived  at  all. 

Summer  Culture. 

More  important,  however,  than  the  in- 
vention of  the  sub-surface  packer  is  the 
method  advocated  by  Mr.  Campbell  for 
the  conservation  of  soil  moisture  over  a 
period  of  from  six  months  to  one  year, 
152 


THE  CAMPBELL  SYSTEM 

and  what  he  terms  "Summer  Culture."1 
The  credit,  however,  of  introducing  this 
system  undoubtedly  belongs  to  the  agri- 
culturists of  Utah,  who  have  successfully 
used  moisture-saving  summer  fallows  in 
dry- land  farming  for  over  forty  years. 

In  the  springtime,  as  soon  as  the  frost 
is  well  out  of  the  ground,  land  that  has 
already  been  plowed  is  gone  over  twice 
with  a  disc  harrow.  This  produces  a 
mulch  which  prevents  evaporation ;  it  also 
opens  and  loosens  the  surface,  so  that  the 
rains  quickly  percolate  into  the  soil.  The 
land  is  then  harrowed  after  each  rain  with 
an  ordinary  harrow.  If  the  rain  is  so 
heavy  as  to  pack  the  surface  of  the  soil, 
the  disc  harrow  must  again  be  used. 
Naturally,  the  kind  of  tool  for  each  sub- 
sequent cultivation  will  depend  upon  the 
state  of  the  land,  the  rainfall,  and  the 

1  This  name  is  rather  vague  :  summer  tillage  and  sum- 
mer tilled  are  better  terms. 

153 


DRY-FARMING 

weed  growth.  But,  since  the  main  object 
is  to  store  water  in  the  soil,  two  things 
must  be  constantly  kept  in  mind :  first,  to 
prevent  the  surface  of  the  soil  from  form- 
ing a  hard  crust,  and,  secondly,  to  pre- 
vent the  growth  of  weeds.  This  tillage 
may  continue  for  a  matter  of  two  or  three 
months. 

Then  at  the  beginning  of  the  rainy 
season  comes  the  plowing,  which  is 
done  to  a  depth  of  7  or  8  inches — the 
deeper  the  better.  If  the  above  plan  has 
been  properly  followed  out  the,  soil  will 
be  moist  and  easily  pulverized  by  the 
plow.  Furthermore,  the  surface  hav- 
ing been  made  fine,  there  are  no  clods  to 
turn  to  the  bottom  of  the  furrow.  If  you 
have  a  sub-surface  packer  it  should  be 
used  while  the  soil  is  still  moist,  making 
the  lower  half  of  the  furrow  fine  and  firm. 
Next,  follow  with  an  Acme  or  a  common 
harrow  which  will  form  a  mellow  mois- 
154 


THE  CAMPBELL  SYSTEM 

ture-saving  mulch.  From  this  time  on, 
the  field  must  be  cultivated  after  every 
rain  and  often  enough  to  prevent  any 
weeds  from  growing.  It  is  then  seeded 
to  winter  wheat  or  left  over  for  the  fol- 
lowing spring  crop.  It  will  thus  be  seen 
that  two  decided  benefits  accrue  from 
Mr.  Campbell's  method  of  summer  till- 
age: (1)  The  storage  of  the  rainfall  of 
part  of  the  season.  Experiments  have 
shown  that  with  the  loam  soil  and  clay 
sub-soils  of  the  western  prairies  but  little 
moisture  is  lost  by  percolation.  (2)  By 
maintaining  a  loose  mulch  on  the  surface 
and  so  preserving  the  moisture  under- 
neath and  by  allowing  the  sunshine  and 
air  to  permeate  into  the  ground  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  beneficial  soil-germs  is  en- 
couraged. 

Regarding  the  possibilities  of  summer 
culture  in  semi-arid  States,  Campbell 
writes : 

155 


DRY-FARMING 

"It  is  our  opinion,  based  on  practical 
results  and  observation  of  conditions 
similar  to  those  in  western  Kansas,  that 
by  the  summer  culture  plan,  storing  the 
water  the  entire  season  and  raising  crops 
the  following  year,  much  larger  average 
crops  may  be  grown  than  the  present 
average  in  Iowa  or  Illinois.  In  fact,  we 
do  not  believe  we  overdraw  when  we  say 
that  in  the  more  arid  portion  of  the  semi- 
arid  belt  by  the  summer  culture  plan, 
only  cropping  every  other  year,  we  can 
raise  more  wheat  at  less  cost  in  ten  years 
than  can  be  grown  in  the  more  humid 
portions  of  the  belt  in  ten  consecutive 
crops  by  the  ordinary  plan.  By  our 
method  we  have  the  advantage  of  only 
seeding  half  the  land.  The  great  value 
of  work  along  this  line  lies  in  grasping 
fully  the  idea  of  storing  and  conserving 
the  rain  waters,  and  studying  carefully 
the  necessary  physical .  condition  of  the 
156 


THE  CAMPBELL  SYSTEM 

soil  and  endeavoring  to  bring  it  to  the 
highest  degree  of  perfection." 

Mr.  A.  M.  Ten  Eyck,  Professor  of 
Agronomy  at  the  Kansas  State  Agricul- 
tural College,  puts  the  whole  matter  con- 
cisely as  follows: — 

"The  principle  of  loosening  the  surface 
of  the  soil  and  keeping  a  mulch  of  mel- 
low soil  in  order  to  prevent  the  evapora- 
tion of  the  moisture  is  well  recognized  by 
farmers  generally,  and  is  practised  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  in  the  cultivation  of 
all  kinds  of  crops.  In  the  Campbell  sys- 
tem of  culture  the  purpose  is  to  keep  a 
mellow  soil-mulch  on  the  surface  of  the 
land  all  the  time,  not  only  during  the 
growing  of  the  crop,  but  in  the  intervals 
between  harvest  and  seeding  time.  Thus, 
after  the  crop  is  planted,  the  land  is  kept 
cultivated  with  the  harrow  or  weeder  in 
order  to  break  the  surface  crust  and  con- 
serve the  soil  moisture,  and,  following  out 
159 


DRY-FARMING 

the  same  principle,  the  harrowing  or 
work  with  the  weeder  is  continued  after 
the  grain  or  corn  (maize)  is  up,  and 
during  the  growing  period  frequent  cul- 
tivation is  practised.  After  the  crop  is 
harvested  the  cultivation  is  not  discon- 
tinued, but  the  surface  of  the  ground  is 
loosened  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  crop 
is  removed  by  the  use  of  the  disc  harrow, 
and  thus  the  soil  is  kept  continually  in  a 
condition  not  only  to  prevent  the  loss  of 
the  water  already  stored  in  the  soil,  but 
this  same  condition  and  mellow  surface 
favors  the  absorption  of  rain  and  largely 
prevents  the  loss  of  water  by  surface 
drainage." 

Summer  culture  is,  therefore,  different 
from  summer  fallowing,  for  the  sole  aim 
of  the  first  is  to  keep  the  land  constantly 
stirred  to  conserve  the  rainfall,  whereas 
the  object  of  the  latter  is  simply  to  rest 
the  ground  by  letting  it  lie  idle.  Further- 
160 


THE  CAMPBELL  SYSTEM 

more,  the  old  idea  of  allowing  the  weeds 
to  grow  in  order  to  be  turned  under  for 
green  manure,  as  commonly  practised  by 
the  summer-fallow  system,  is  condemned 
by  Campbell,  who  lays  special  stress  on 
clean  and  continuous  tillage  for  the  con- 
servation of  moisture.  His  experiments 
clearly  show  the  marked  difference  in 
yield  between  ground  that  has  been  sum- 
mer tilled  and  land  which  has  had  its  soil 
moisture  sapped  to  such  a  degree  by 
growing  weeds  that  it  breaks  up  on 
plowing  into  a  lumpy  condition,  and 
cannot  be  made  into  a  moist,  mellow,  seed- 
bed. Mr.  Campbell  lays  emphasis  on  the 
need  of  local  experience.  He  says :  "The 
mistake  of  the  pioneer  settlers  was  that 
they  tried  to  farm  in  the  West  as  they 
had  done  in  the  East,  and  the  result  was 
disastrous  failure."  But  he  also  insists 
on  the  value  of  learning.  "The  ideal 
farmer  is  first  of  all  a  student,  then  an 
161 


DRY-FARMING 

investigator,  and,  finally,  a  specialist; 
ever  alert  for  new  things  and  new  ideas, 
open-minded  and  free  from  conceit;  a 
man  familiar  with  what  is  going  on 
around  him,  and  yet  intensely  devoted  to 
his  own  work." 

That  the  Campbell  method  is  likely  to 
stand  the  test  of  time  there  can  be  no  rea- 
sonable doubt,  since  it  is  based  on  certain 
fundamental  principles  of  farm  practice, 
which  both  experience  and  experiment 
have  shown  to  be  correct.  Moreover,  it 
can  never  become  merely  a  fashionable 
agricultural  fad,  for  it  demands  a  high 
degree  of  manual  skill,  and  hard  and  con- 
tinuous toil.  Such  a  system  is  not  likely 
to  attract  the  rural  dilettante  or  the  lazy 
farmer. 


162 


CHAPTER  VII 

v  DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

A  LTHOUGH  dry-farming  is  now 
X~V  practised  in  almost  every  State  in 
the  semi-arid  West,  it  is  desirable  to  rec- 
ognize three  distinct  areas  each  of  which 
has  certain  peculiarities  of  climate  and 
soil.  The  first  has  been  termed  the  Great 
Plains;  the  second,  the  Great  Basin;  and 
the  third,  the  Columbia  Basin  Uplands. 


THE  GREAT  PLAINS 

THE  vast  territory  now  widely  known 

as  the  Great  Plains  area  is  bounded  on 

the  north  by  Canada,  on  the  west  by  the 

163 


DRY-FARMING 

Rocky  Mountains,  on  the  east  by  the 
ninety-eighth  meridian,1  and  on  the 
south  by  the  thirty-second  parallel  of 
latitude.2 

In  the  long-settled  States  of  the  East, 
the  agricultural  industry  has  been  placed 
on  a  more  or  less  stable  basis;  but  in  the 
West  many  problems  are  still  new  and 
unsolved.  Writing  on  this  subject, 
Chilcott  says: 

"It  is  therefore  within  the  Great 
Plains  area  that  most  of  the  great  prob- 
lems of  dry-land  agriculture  must  be 
solved.  It  is  here  that  experiments  must 
be  carried  on  which  shall  determine  what 
are  the  best  methods  of  agriculture  for 
the  conservation  of  moisture,  and  the 
maintenance  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil 

1  This  line  passes  through  the  States  of  North  and  South 
Dakota,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Oklahoma,  and  the  Panhandle 
of  Texas. 

2  The  southern  limit  of  the  Staked  Plains.    South  of  this 
line  the  country  changes  and  slopes  rapidly  toward  the 
Gulf  and  the  Rio  Grande. 

164 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

under  climatic  conditions  which  exist 
nowhere  else  in  the  United  States.  Ex- 
periments must  here  be  conducted  that 
shall  determine  what  portions  can  be  used 
for  general  dry-land  agriculture  and 
what  portions  are  unfitted  for  that  pur- 
pose. And  when  it  has  been  demon- 
strated that  certain  portions  of  the  area 
are  unsuited  to  general  dry-land  agri- 
culture, it  must  be  determined  how  these 
portions  can  best  be  utilized  for  stock- 
raising;  and  where  this  industry  becomes 
the  predominating  one,  means  must  be 
devised  for  supplementing  the  natural 
grasses  of  the  range  with  forage  plants, 
either  annual  or  perennial." 

There  are  many  persons  who  believe 
that  the  climate  of  the  Great  Plains  is 
changing.  Studies  in  climatology,  how- 
ever, do  not  support  this  theory,  and  this 
portion  of  the  United  States  is  likely  to 
remain  an  area  of  comparatively  light 

9  165 


DRY-FARMING 

rainfall,  which  is  probably  one  of  the 
main  reasons  for  its  great  and  sustained 
fertility.  For,  while  the  scanty  rainfall 
has  not  tended  to  induce  a  luxuriant 
growth  of  vegetation  during  ages  past,  it 
has  served  to  preserve  within  the  soil  such 
products  of  decomposition  as  have  been 
produced;  and  the  evaporation  being 
very  great,  the  plant- f  oods  have  been  kept 
near  the  surface  instead  of  being  washed 
away,  or  lost  by  seepage.  Again,  the 
methods  now  devised  for  the  conserva- 
tion of  soil  moisture  and  the  introduction 
of  drought-resistant  plants  are  enabling 
farmers  to  raise  satisfactory  crops  even 
in  severe  droughts. 

Problems. 

The   problems  to  be   solved  in  this 
region  are  simple,  but  none  the  less  im- 
portant.     How  can  the  largest  yields  of 
the  four  staple  crops — wheat,  oats,  bar- 
166 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

ley  and  corn— be  obtained?  (1)  By  rais- 
ing the  same  crop  continuously  by 
ordinary  methods  of  farming,  (2)  by 
continuous  cropping  with  the  same  crop, 
using  the  best  methods  of  cultivation  for 
moisture  conservation,  or  (3)  by  alter- 
nate cropping  and  summer  fallowing. 
The  various  Experiment  Stations  now 
established  by  the  United  States  and  the 
State  Legislatures  will  do  much  to  help 
the  farmer  in  solving  these  problems. 

Early  Mistakes. 

As  I  have  elsewhere  noted  the  settlers 
who  came  from  the  East  soon  found  that 
with  the  fertile  and  easily  tilled  lands  of 
the  West,  it  was  easy,  in  good  seasons,  to 
raise  large  crops.  This  led  to  very  casual 
and  slovenly  methods  of  tillage.  Plow- 
ing was  carelessly  done  to  a  depth  of 
only  three  or  four  inches.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  the  land  was  plowed  only  once  in 
167 


DRY-FARMING 

three  or  four  years,  the  grain  being 
"stubbled  in"  on  the  ground  of  last  year's 
crop ;  or  the  land  was  prepared  for  seed- 
ing simply  by  means  of  the  disc  harrow. 
At  first  this  system  of  farming  yielded 
fairly  successful  returns,  but  a  series  of 
dry  years  culminating  in  the  disastrous 
drought  of  1894  taught  the  farmers  a 
bitter  lesson,  and,  unfortunately,  served 
to  depopulate  a  large  part  of  the  Great 
Plains  region.  It  is  commonly  said  that 
the  failure  of  these  pioneer  farmers  was 
owing  to  the  exhaustion  of  soil  fertility; 
but  in  the  opinion  of  the  writer  it  was 
due  far  more  to  a  lack  of  moisture.  If 
these  early  settlers  had  known  how  to  till 
their  fields  in  order  to  conserve  the  maxi- 
mum amount  of  soil  water,  it  is  more 
than  probable  that,  even  with  continuous 
cropping  to  wheat,  the  soil-germs,  grow- 
ing in  a  moist,  mellow  seed-bed,  would 
have  supplied  the  necessary  plant-foods 
168 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

even  in  the  most  trying  drought.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  the  settlers  in  this  region 
are  fast  learning  the  great  lesson  of  dry- 
farming,  namely,— thorough  tillage. 

Better  Methods. 

A  simple  but  important  new  practice 
is  now  being  widely  advocated.  It  has 
been  known  for  long  that  the  loss  of 
moisture  from  a  field  of  stubble  left  bare 
by  harvesting  the  crop  is  greater  than 
at  any  other  time.  This  is  especially  true 
of  semi-arid  districts  where  the  tempera- 
ture and  wind  velocity  are  usually  very 
high  at  this  time  of  the  year.  To  pre- 
vent this  waste  of  moisture  it  is  cus- 
tomary to  disc  and  plow  the  land  as  soon 
as  possible  after  the  crop  has  been  har- 
vested. 

The  better  methods  of  farming,  as  out- 
lined in  a  previous  chapter,  consist  in 
storing  as  much  of  the  rainfall  as  pos- 
171 


DRY-FARMING 

sible,  by  deep  and  early  fall  plowing.  If 
the  land  is  plowed  during  hot,  dry 
weather  and  is  then  allowed  to  lie  loosely 
as  it  is  left  by  the  plow,  there  is  liable  to 
be  a  great  loss  of  moisture  through 
evaporation.  It  is  therefore  essential  to 
compact  the  soil  as  soon  as  possible  after 
plowing.  This  can  be  done  in  several 
ways:  by  the  use  of  the  subsurface 
packer,  by  the  common  disc  harrow,  with 
the  discs  set  nearly  straight,  or  by  the  or- 
dinary steel-toothed  harrow.  In  fact  any 
implement  may  be  used  which  will  pack 
the  soil  and  leave  a  loose  mulch  on  the 
surface. 

Again,  if  rains  occur  after  the  plowing 
and  packing  have  been  done,  they  tend  to 
form  a  crust  on  the  surface  and  the  loss 
of  soil  moisture  will  be  very  great.  It 
may  therefore  be  advisable  to  harrow  the 
surface  with  a  light  harrow  after  every 
rain  until  the  snows  come,  unless  it  is 
172 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

deemed  best  to  leave  the  land  in  the 
rough  furrow  to  be  weathered  during  the 
winter  storms.  These  are  matters  a 
farmer  must  judge  for  himself.  In  the 
springtime  the  land  should  be  harrowed 
after  every  rain  until  the  grain  has 
reached  a  height  of  three  or  four  inches. 
This  will  tend  to  conserve  the  moisture 
and  destroy  weeds.  The  practice  of 
alternate  cropping  and  summer  fallow- 
ing is  common  throughout  the  Great 
Plains,1  but  it  has  not  given  such  good 
results  as  in  the  Great  Basin,  where  most 
of  the  rain  falls  during  the  winter 
months,  and  crop  rotation,  combined  with 
green  manuring,  has  proved  a  more 
profitable  system.  Finally,  the  intro- 
duction of  drought-resistant  crops  such 
as  Durum  Wheat,  Kherson  or  Sixty- 
Day  Oats  and  various  strains  of 

1  In  the  Great  Plains  area  most  of  the  rain  falls  during 
the  summer  months. 

173 


DRY-FARMING 

Sorghums  has  done  much  to  make 
fanning  in  this  region  much  less  preca- 
rious and  uncertain  than  formerly.  In  a 
word,  the  shiftless  and  improvident 
methods  of  the  past  are  giving  way  to  a 
new  era  of  better  and  more  scientific 
farming. 

THE  GEEAT  BASIN 

THE  agricultural  region  known  as  the 
Great  Basin  is  a  vast  tract  of  country 
lying  between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
the  Sierra  Nevada.  It  comprises  a  large 
and  irregular  body  of  land  lying  chiefly 
in  the  States  of  Utah,  Nevada,  Oregon 
and  California,  where  the  rivers  finding 
no  outlet  to  the  ocean  flow  into  various 
lakes  and  sinks.1  The  Great  Salt  Lake 
of  Utah  is  the  most  famous  body  of  water 

1  A  sink  is  a  body  of  water  originally  fresh,  without  an 
outlet,  becoming  salt  through  evaporation. 

174 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

in  this  region.  By  far  the  larger  part  of 
the  Great  Basin  lies  at  an  altitude  of 
over  4200  feet  above  sea  level.  The 
farms  in  the  valleys  above  the  water- 
courses have  mostly  been  placed  under 
irrigation,  while  those  on  the  higher 
mesas1  which  cannot  be  reached  by  canals 
remain  to  be  reclaimed  by  dry-farming. 
On  a  map  the  Great  Basin  looks  just  like 
a  huge  mass  of  protoplasm  as  seen  under 
a  high-power  microscope  with  three  ir- 
regularly shaped  arms.  One  arm  reaches 
into  Oregon,  another  into  California, 
and  the  third  into  Utah ;  but  the  body  lies 
altogether  in  the  State  of  Nevada. 

Vegetation. 

In  the  northern  and  central  portions  of 
the  Great  Basin  the  higher  and  better- 
watered  lands  are  covered  with  sage- 
brush, easily  recognized  by  its  green- 

1  Mesa,  a  high  plain  or  table-land. 

175 


DRY-FARMING 

gray  foliage ;  while  here  and  there  in  the 
mesas  you  note  the  dark  green  of  the  rab- 
bit-brush and  scattered  tufts  of  different 
hardy  grasses.  Along  the  foot-hills 
cedars  are  seen  marking  outcrops  on 
stony  soil.  Far  down  below  in  the  valleys 
on  the  heavy  salt-filled  soils  the  grease- 
wood  becomes  the  dominant  shrub  and  the 
sedge  strives  with  the  saltbush  according 
as  the  moisture  is  scant  or  the  alkali 
abundant.  To  the  south  of  this  region 
the  sage-brush  is  replaced  by  the  creosote 
bush;  while  along  the  water-courses  wil- 
lows and  cottonwoods  are  common;  but, 
aside  from  these,  the  arable  lands  of  the 
Great  Basin  are  treeless  and  readily 
brought  under  the  plow. 

Fertility. 

It  is   commonly  held  that  the   con- 
tinuous growth  of  any  one  crop,  such  as 
wheat,  will  rapidly  reduce  and  finally  ex- 
176 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

haust  the  fertility  of  any  soil.1  It  is 
therefore  surprising  to  learn  that  in  some 
of  the  older  valleys  of  the  Great  Basin 
where  wheat  has  been  grown  for  close  on 
half  a  century  that  there  seems  to  be  no 
trace  of  diminished  fertility.  Indeed, 
some  authorities  say  that  those  fields  are 
producing  heavier  crops  than  when  first 
plowed.  The  reason  of  this  sustained 
yield  is  made  plain  when  we  remember 
that  most  of  the  grain  of  the  dry-lands  of 
the  Great  Basin  is  "headed"  instead  of 
being  cut  with  a  binder,  and  where  such  a 
large  amount  of  straw  is  plowed  under 
there  is  probably  no  real  reduction  in  the 
humus  of  the  soil.  But  even  where  the 
binder  is  used,  it  is  more  than  likely  that 
the  surface  cultivation  which  is  so  widely 
practised  in  this  region  for  the  conserva- 
tion of  moisture  also  encourages  the 

1  This  has  been  shown  in  a  striking  manner  in  the  State 
of  Minnesota,  where  the  continuous  production  of  wheat 
has  worn  out  the  once  rich  soils  of  that  region. 

177 


DRY-FARMING 

growth  and  activity  of  those  soil-germs 
which  are  so  helpful  in  supplying  plant- 
food  for  the  use  of  the  subsequent  crop. 

Rainfall. 

In  the  Great  Basin,  as  in  nearly  all  of 
the  United  States  lying  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  the  larger  part  of  the 
rainfall  occurs  during  winter  instead  of 
in  summer,  as  is  the  case  in  the  Great 
Plains  region.  In  general,  rains  can  be 
more  easily  saved  and  stored  up  for 
future  use  when  they  fall  during  the  win- 
ter season.  This  is  especially  true  when 
the  rainfall  of  any  region  is  too  light  to 
produce  a  crop  every  year,  and  summer 
fallowing  and  alternate-year  cropping  is 
necessary  to  conserve  the  scanty  supply.1 
When  rain  falls  during  the  cold  season,  a 
much  smaller  amount  is  evaporated  than 

1  The  average  rainfall  for  the  State  of  Utah  is  about  12 
inches  per  annum. 

178 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

in  the  long,  hot  days  of  summer;  and, 
consequently,  much  more  sinks  into  the 
ground.  Moreover,  recent  experiments 
have  shown  that  when  rain  falls  on  warm, 
dry  ground  it  takes  at  least  one  fourth  of 
an  inch  to  wet  the  top  and  to  reach  the 
moist  soil  below,  while  on  heavier  lands 
at  least  one  half  inch  is  needed  to  pene- 
trate the  hard,  parched  surface-soil. 

Furthermore,  on  a  fine-textured  soil 
having  a  high  water-holding  capacity 
slow  rains  and  snow  percolate  deeply 
during  the  cold  winter  months,  and  there 
is  but  little  surface  run-off.  But  in 
places  where  the  winters  are  dry  and 
severe  and  the  ground  is  solidly  frozen, 
rainfalls  in  winter  may  be  largely 
wasted  by  surface  run-off,  and  also  by 
evaporation  before  the  ground  has  time 
to  thaw  out  in  the  spring;  while  on  poor 
soils  of  low  water-holding  capacity,  rains 
181 


DRY-FARMING 

are  liable  to  be  lost  by  leaching  where  the 
land  is  bare  of  crop.  This  all  goes  to 
show  that  the  three  factors  of  climate, 
season,  and  soil  must  be  constantly  borne 
in  mind  when  dealing  with  the  subject  of 
summer  or  winter  rainfall. 

Tillage. 

The  usual  methods  of  tillage  in  the 
Great  Basin  consist  of  deep  plowing, 
frequent  cultivation,  and  alternate-year 
cropping.  Autumn-sown  wheat  has  been 
so  far  the  chief  crop  grown  on  dry  lands. 
The  land  is  then  plowed  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible, and  left  in  the  rough  furrow  all 
winter.  As  soon  as  the  winter  rains  have 
thoroughly  soaked  into  the  ground,  sur- 
face cultivation  is  begun.  This  is  usually 
done  by  means  of  a  disc-harrow.  Some- 
times a  shallow  summer  plowing  is  given 
to  turn  under  any  weeds.  In  the  late 
summer  a  spike-toothed  harrow  is  used 
182 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

to  form  a  fine  seed-bed,  and  the  next  crop 
is  sown  in  the  month  of  September  or 
early  in  October.  As  the  winter  rains 
tend  to  compact  the  soil  it  is  usual  to 
lightly  harrow  the  wheat  crop  in  the  early 
spring,  as  once  it  starts  to  grow  nothing 
more  can  be  done  to  conserve  the  mois- 
ture. The  grain  is  usually  harvested  with 
a  header  so  that  there  is  always  a  large 
amount  of  straw  to  plow  under. 

The  old  agricultural  practice  of  fal- 
lowing or  plowing  land  and  then  leaving 
it  untilled  for  a  time  was  adopted  to 
render  the  soil  more  tender  and  mellow, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  destroy  weeds. 
But  in  the  Great  Basin,  where  dry-farm- 
ing is  now  much  in  vogue,  the  term 
"fallow"  is  commonly  used  to  mean  land 
left  bare  but  constantly  stirred  to  con- 
serve moisture.  All  farmers  know  that 
moisture  is  lost  very  rapidly  from  a  soil  if 
the  surface  is  not  stirred;  and  so  with 
183 


DRY-FARMING 

crops  that  cannot  be  inter-tilled,  such  as 
wheat,  oats,  and  barley,  much  moisture  is 
wasted  by  direct  evaporation  during  the 
growing  season;  but  with  crops  that  can 
be  inter-tilled  during  the  growing  sea- 
son, such  as  corn  (maize),  potatoes,  and 
mangels,  a  much  larger  amount  of  mois- 
ture can  be  held  in  the  soil  by  means  of 
the  soil  mulch  or  dust  blanket,  as  it  is 
commonly  called. 

Depth  of  Soil. 

Thus  it  is  manifest  that  the  success  of 
dry-farming  depends  upon  the  possibil- 
ity of  storing  enough  water  in  the  soil  to 
carry  the  crop  to  maturity;  and,  conse- 
quently, the  water-holding  capacity  of 
any  soil  becomes  a  matter  of  great  im- 
portance. The  dry-land  farmer  should, 
therefore,  carefully  survey  his  fields,  and 
unhesitatingly  select  the  deep,  rich,  mel- 
low lands  in  preference  to  the  poor,  light 
184 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

and  sandy  soils  whenever  the  storage  of 
water  from  one  season  to  another  is  the 
main  object  in  view. 

In  general  the  soils  of  the  Great  Basin 
are  deep  and  retentive  and  this  is  espe- 
cially true  of  Utah.  Prof.  J.  C.  Hogen- 
son  writes:  "In  selecting  soil  for  an  arid 
farm  of  course  we  know  that  we  should 
choose  a  soil  that  is  quite  retentive  of 
moisture.  But  I  believe  that  above  all 
we  should  choose  a  deep  soil  rather  than 
the  kind  of  soil,  for  if  we  have  a  deep  soil, 
even  though  it  be  somewhat  less  retentive 
of  moisture,  we  can  cultivate  it  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  store  the  moisture  there  to  a 
considerable  depth,  and  that  is  better 
than  a  more  retentive  soil  which  is  poorly 
cultivated."  Again  he  remarks:  "In 
order  to  grow  wheat  successfully  on  dry 
land,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the 
land  be  thoroughly  prepared  before  the 
crop  is  planted.  I  do  not  believe  that  a 

10  185 


DRY-FARMING 

person  can  make  a  success  of  dry-farm- 
ing who  is  not  in  the  habit  of  thoroughly 
preparing  his  land  before  the  crop  is 
sown.  In  fact,  if  the  land  is  not  thor- 
oughly prepared,  more  than  one  half  of 
the  profits  which  might  be  derived  are 
lost."  And  finally:  "We  have  found 
that  on  an  average  of  a  number  of  years 
deep  seeding  has  given  us  better  results 
than  shallow  seeding,  because  in  the  deep 
seeding  the  seeds  are  always  put  below 
the  dry  soil  mulch,  where  they  can  get 
the  moisture  necessary  for  rapid  germi- 
nation." 

Crops. 

In  the  Great  Basin  wheat  and  lucerne 
are  the  chief  crops  raised  in  dry-farming. 
The  varieties  of  wheat  are  nearly  all  light- 
colored  and  belong  to  the  class  commer- 
cially known  as  "Soft  Wheats"  of  which 
"Kufoid"  and  "Gold  Coin"  are  the  most 
186 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

commonly  grown.  Turkey  Red  is  also 
being  largely  sown.  On  the  State  ex- 
perimental farms  different  varieties  of 
Durum  wheat,  the  spring  wheat  of 
the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,  such  as 
Fife  and  Blue-stem,  together  with  some 
types  of  hard  winter  wheats,  are  being 
tested. 

In  general  the  wheats  of  the  Great 
Basin  are  very  much  mixed,  and  grading 
and  selection  are  urgently  needed.  Pub- 
lic attention  has  been  called  to  this  matter 
by  Mr.  William  R.  Jardine,  the  United 
States  Agronomist,  who  has  been  trying 
to  persuade  the  farmers  to  grow  one 
variety  for  the  whole  semi-arid  belt  in 
order  to  obtain  a  better  price  for  a  uni- 
form wheat.  The  Utah  wheats  have  been 
found  to  have  a  fairly  high  percentage 
of  gluten  and  so  are  usually  blended  with 
the  softer  California  wheat,  and  there  is 
but  little  doubt  that  with  proper  care  in 
187 


DRY-FARMING 

the  selection  of  seed  the  Great  Basin  will 
become  one  of  the  finest  wheat-growing 
countries  in  the  world. 

Alfalfa  (Lucerne). 

Alfalfa  is  the  standard  forage  crop. 
At  first  it  was  grown  only  under  irriga- 
tion, but  it  is  now  being  widely  cultivated 
on  the  dry  lands.  It  is  important  to  note 
that  up  to  the  present  no  serious  effort 
has  been  made  to  secure  varieties  suited 
to  dry-land  farming,  and  so  it  happens 
that  seed  from  irrigated  land  is  almost 
invariably  sown  on  dry  lands.  It  is  prob- 
able that  drought-resistant  varieties 
could  be  developed  in  a  comparatively 
short  time  if  proper  attention  were  given 
to  selecting  seed  that  has  been  grown 
upon  dry  lands.  Farmers  should  insist 
upon  seed  merchants  classifying  alfalfa 
seed  thus:  (a)  Seed  from  dry  lands, 
and  (b)  seed  grown  on  irrigated  lands. 
188 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

It  is  highly  probable  that  the  method  of 
sowing  alfalfa  in  rows  wide  enough  to 
permit  of  inter-tillage  will  be  found  to 
be  the  best  plan  for  raising  forage  as  well 
as  for  seed  production.  As  Mr.  Scofield 
writes  in  his  monograph  on  this  subject: 
"It  is  well  known  that  isolated  alfalfa 
plants  when  allowed  to  mature  on  these 
dry  lands  produce  relatively  large  quan- 
tities of  seed.  This  is  probably  due,  in 
part,  to  a  better  illumination  on  all  sides 
of  the  plant,  resulting  in  a  larger  number 
of  flowers,  in  part  to  the  drier  air  sur- 
rounding these  flowers  during  the  pol- 
lenation  period,  which  appears  to  have 
some  bearing  on  seed  production,  and  in 
part  to  the  greater  ease  of  access  for  in- 
sects of  various  kinds  that  promote 
pollenation.  It  is  certainly  true  that  the 
partial  isolation  of  the  plants  secured  by 
row  planting  results  in  greatly  increased 
yields  of  seed  per  plant,  and  there  is 
191 


DRY-FARMING 

strong  probability  that  the  yields  per 
acre  would  be  larger,  so  that  experiments 
to  determine  this  point  would  be  well 
justified." 

Seeding. 

In  the  Great  Basin  thin  or  light  seed- 
ing has  been  found  to  give  the  best  re- 
sults. A  large  quantity  of  seed  is  often 
the  cause  of  crop  failure ;  because  a  heavy 
seeding  makes  an  instant  demand  on  the 
moisture  close  to  the  surface  before  the 
young  and  tender  plants  can  strike  their 
roots  down  into  the  deep  soil.  The  re- 
sult is  a  severe  struggle  for  existence 
among  the  individual  plants  and  crop 
failure  should  the  drought  continue. 
Speaking  on  this  subject  Merrill  re- 
marks: "When  Bishop  Farrell  and  Mr. 
Salisbury  first  started  their  experiments 
in  the  Cache  Valley  they  sowed  the  same 
amount  of  seed  on  their  land  that  they 
192 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

had  been  accustomed  to  sow  on  irrigated 
land,  namely,  a  bushel  and  a  half  (90 
Ibs.)  to  two  bushels  and  a  half  (150  Ibs.) , 
and  as  a  consequence  there  was  not  suffi- 
cient moisture  in  the  ground  to  nourish 
the  plants  which  came  up  and  wilted 
away  and  died."  Thus,  in  the  Great 
Basin  the  farmers  have  learned  the  lesson 
of  putting  merely  sufficient  seed  on  the 
land  for  the  available  supply  of  moisture. 
Thus,  whereas  in  the  more  humid  regions 
of  the  United  States  farmers  sow  sixty 
to  ninety  pounds  of  wheat  to  the  acre  and 
fifteen  to  twenty  pounds  of  lucerne  on 
the  dry  lands  of  the  Great  Basin,  far 
heavier  crops  are  usually  obtained  when 
only  thirty  to  forty  pounds  of  wheat  and 
eight  to  ten  pounds  of  lucerne  per  acre 
are  sown.  But  no  hard  and  fast  rule  can 
be  given ;  for  the  same  amount  of  seed  will 
seldom  give  the  same  results  in  different 
localities. 

193 


DRY-FARMING 

Rotation.1 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  so  far  crop 
rotation  has  not  played  a  prominent  part 
in  the  agricultural  practice  of  Utah,  and 
Merrill  makes  this  plain  in  a  recent  ad- 
dress: "I  want  to  object  to  the  idea  that 
has  been  advanced  here,  that  we  need  to 
rotate  our  crops.  If  we  grow  a  crop  of 
corn — maize — on  the  land,  alternating 
with  wheat,  it  simply  means  that  that 
corn  is  going  to  take  so  much  moisture 
out  of  the  land." 

Summing  up  it  may  be  said  that  dry- 
farming  in  the  Great  Basin  is  based  on 
certain  fundamental  principles  which 
have  been  worked  out  by  the  farmers 
themselves  and  their  striking  success  has 
been  mainly  due  to  a  combination  of  five 
factors:  (1)  Deep  plowing  to  increase  the 
capacity  of  the  soil  for  holding  moisture. 

1  Second  Annual  Trans-Missouri  Dry  Farming  Congress, 
Salt  Lake  City. 

194 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

(2)  Constant  harrowing  to  form  a  soil- 
mulch.  (3)  The  summer  fallow  to  rest 
the  soil,  to  encourage  the  nitrifying  bac- 
teria, and  to  carry  over  the  rainfall  from 
one  season  to  another.  (4)  Fall  plow- 
ing. (5)  A  small  quantity  of  seed,  so  as 
not  to  draw  too  heavily  on  the  limited 
amount  of  moisture  in  the  soil  before  the 
plants  are  strong  enough  to  resist 
drought.  In  a  word,  the  farmers  of  this 
region  have  concentrated  their  whole 
attention  on  one  problem,  namely,  the 
conservation  of  water  for  the  use  of  the 
crop.  Furthermore,  the  more  progres- 
sive settlers  are  convinced  that  too  many 
different  types  of  cereals  are  being 
grown  and  an  effort  is  now  being  made 
to  eliminate  all  inferior  and  mixed  va- 
rieties and  to  raise  one  standard  sort 
which  will  command  a  ready  sale  at  a 
high  price. 

195 


DRY-FARMING 


THE  COLUMBIA  BASIN  UPLANDS 

DURING  the  past  few  years  there  has 
been  a  rapid  development  in  dry-farming 
in  Idaho,  Oregon,  and  Washington  or  in 
other  words  on  the  wheat  lands  of  the 
Columbia  Basin.  This  region  is  almost 
entirely  surrounded  by  mountains.  The 
Cascade  Mountains  lie  to  the  west;  the 
Bitter  Root  and  Coeur  d'Alene  Moun- 
tains to  the  east;  the  Okanogan  High- 
lands to  the  north;  and  the  Blue 
Mountains  to  the  southeast.  The  eleva- 
tion varies  from  a  few  hundred  feet  along 
the  Columbia  to  as  much  as  3000  feet  in 
the  eastern  portion  of  this  region;  while 
the  average  annual  rainfall  varies  from 
6  to  24  inches.  Near  the  Columbia 
River,  where  the  rainfall  is  lighter,  the 
dry  season  extends  from  March  until 
October.  Near  the  Blue  and  Bitter  Root 
196 


ROTATION  PLOTS  AT  THE  EDGELEY  EXPERIMENT  STATION.  NORTH  DAKOTA 


ROTATION  PLOTS  AT  THE  EDGELEY  EXPERIMENT  STATION.  NORTH  DAKOTA 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

Mountains  the  dry  season  is  confined  en- 
tirely to  the  summer  months,  while  the 
rainfall  is  fairly  well  distributed  through- 
out the  remaining  part  of  the  year. 

There  are  two  distinct  agricultural 
sections  in  the  Columbia  Basin.  The  one 
consists  of  the  alluvial  valleys  along  the 
streams  where  irrigation  is  practised ;  the 
other,  the  upland  prairies — vast  undulat- 
ing treeless  hills — where  crops  are  raised 
by  means  of  dry-farming. 

While  the  central  part  of  the  Colum- 
bia Basin  region  is  exceedingly  dry  the 
eastern  portion  receives  the  heaviest  an- 
nual rainfall.  It  was  natural  therefore 
that  the  early  settlers  some  thirty-five 
years  ago  should  take  up  homesteads 
within  the  area  of  the  heaviest  rainfall 
that  lies  along  the  foothills  of  the  Blue 
and  Bitter  Root  Mountains.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  region  was  considered 
only  of  value  for  grazing  purposes.  But 
199 


DRY-FARMING 

the  later  colonists  have  pushed  cultiva- 
tion into  the  dry  central  region  and  are 
producing  crops  without  the  aid  of  ir- 
rigation. From  the  earliest  settlements 
cereal  crops  have  been  grown  almost 
exclusively  in  this  region.  True,  alfalfa, 
timothy,  corn,  potatoes,  and  fruit  are 
now  produced  in  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. Yet  they  all  sink  into  insignificance 
in  comparison  with  the  grains — more 
especially  wheat. 

Tillage. 

In  the  Columbia  Basin,  wHere  the 
rainfall  is  light,  wheat  is  grown  every 
other  year  alternating  with  the  summer 
fallow;  where  the  rainfall  is  ample  crops 
are  grown  every  year.  Three  reasons  are 
usually  given  in  support  of  summer-fal- 
lowing in  this  region:  (a)  To  conserve 
moisture.  A  large  amount  of  wheat 
being  grown  with  an  annual  rainfall  of 
200 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

from  8  to  10  inches.  So  the  rainfall  of 
one  season  is  conserved  for  the  use  of  the 
next  year's  crop.  (b)  To  eradicate 
weeds.  The  yield  of  all  grain  crops  is 
greatly  diminished  when  the  land  be- 
comes foul  with  weeds,  while  the  loss  of 
both  moisture  and  plant-food  is  very 
great,  (c)  To  renew  the  fertility  of  the 
soil. 

The  corrugated  roller  and  subsurface 
packer  have  been  introduced  into  this 
region.  Farmers  in  eastern  Oregon 
who  use  the  roller  state  that  their  seed 
germinates  much  better  and  that  the 
yield  is  several  bushels  more  per  acre 
when  they  use  the  roller  just  after  drill- 
ing in  the  grain.  It  also  enables  them  to 
cut  the  grain  much  more  easily  and 
cheaply  because  the  ground  is  firmer  at 
harvest  time.  If  neither  the  corrugated 
roller  nor  the  subsurface  packer  is  avail- 
able the  disc  harrow  is  used  instead.  It 
203 


DRY-FARMING 

is  set  perfectly  straight  and  weighted  to 
make  it  cut  deeply.  Used  in  this  way  it 
does  very  effective  wTork  in  settling  and 
packing  the  bottom  of  the  furrow-slice. 

Speaking  of  the  Columbia  Basin 
region  Hunter  remarks:  "There  is  con- 
siderable fall  plowing  done  for  spring 
crops.  It  is  generally  conceded  that  bet- 
ter yields  are  secured  from  fall  plowing 
than  from  spring  plowing,  provided  the 
land  is  reasonably  clean.  There  are  sev- 
eral reasons  for  this.  Soil  left  rough  and 
porous  as  it  comes  from  the  plow  holds 
the  snow  better  and  rain  much  better 
than  land  that  is  unplowed.  By  seeding- 
time  in  the  spring  the  winter  rains  have 
settled  the  soil  sufficiently  to  form  a  good, 
firm  seed-bed.  In  other  words,  the  win- 
ter rains  put  the  bottom  of  the  furrow- 
slice  in  practically  the  same  condition 
as  does  the  subsurface  packer  or  the  cor- 
rugated roller.  When  in  this  condition 
204 


DRY-FARMING  ZONES 

there  is  a  very  much  better  capillary 
movement  of  the  moisture  than  is  usually 
secured  from  spring  plowing.  Again, 
by  plowing  in  the  autumn  the  stubble 
and  other  trash  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground  are  covered  up  and  given  a  better 
chance  to  decay." 

Varieties. 

A  great  many  different  varieties  of 
wheat  are  grown  in  the  Columbia  Basin. 
So  many  different  sorts  with  their  va- 
riable milling  qualities  thrown  upon  the 
market  make  a  very  unsatisfactory  state 
of  affairs.  Could  this  list  be  reduced  to 
two,  four,  or  even  six  of  the  best  varieties, 
it  would  be  much  better.  Such  varieties 
would  then  become  standardized  and  the 
miller  would  know  what  he  was  buying 
and  the  producer  what  he  was  selling. 
In  selecting  the  most  profitable  wheat  to 
grow  it  is  not  always  possible  to  satisfy 
205 


DRY-FARMING 

both  the  farmer  and  the  miller.  A  wheat 
of  poor  milling  quality  may  be  a  heavy 
yielder.  But  undoubtedly  the  farmers  as 
a  whole  will  secure  better  results  by  con- 
fining themselves  to  a  few  varieties.  The 
following  are  the  best  known  varieties: 
Little  Club,  Red  Chaff,  Blue-stem,  Early 
Wilbur,  Forty-fold  and  Turkey  Red. 


206 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DRY-LAND  CROPS 

AS  we  have  already  seen,  the  region  of 
-/V  the  United  States  which  is  destined 
to  be  reclaimed  mainly  by  the  application 
of  the  principles  of  dry-farming  com- 
prises the  western  half  of  the  Dakotas, 
Nebraska,  Kansas,  the  Panhandle  of 
Texas,  and  westward  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
range;  in  other  words  the  Great  Plains 
region,  the  Intermountain  West,  and 
vast  tracts  of  country  in  the  States  of 
California,  Oregon  and  Washington. 
Now  the  annual  rainfall  of  this  dry- 
farming  zone  varies  from  four  to  twenty- 
five  inches  per  annum;  and  as  might  be 
expected  wide  differences  also  occur  in 
11  207 


DRY-FARMING 

the  altitude,  the  climate  and  the  soil  of 
this  enormous  area.  It  is  therefore  im- 
possible to  say  off-hand  what  sort  of  crop 
should  be  grown  or  what  methods  of 
farm  management  should  be  employed. 
Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  can  now  dis- 
cuss the  various  crops  which  have  given, 
or  are  likely  to  give,  the  best  results  from 
a  dry-farming  standpoint. 

At  the  outset  it  may  be  said  that  to 
raise  one  crop1  year  after  year  on  the 
same  land  is  seldom  a  profitable,  and 
never  a  safe  proceeding,  and  the  dry- 
farmer  must  always  try,  as  far  as  is  prac- 
ticable, to  maintain  a  rational  system  of 
rotation  in  order  to  preserve  the  fertility 
of  his  soil  and  at  the  same  time  to  keep 
his  fields  free  from  insect  and  fungous 
pests. 

1  The  exceptional  fertility  of  some  dry  lands  after  many 
years  of  continuous  cropping  to  the  same  grain  should  not 
lead  farmers  to  adopt  this  practice  without  very  good  rea- 
sons. 

208 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

Chief  Crops. 

In  dry-farming  the  chief  crops  are  the 
cereals,  mostly  wheat,  oats,  barley,  corn 
(maize),  rye,  emmer,  spelt,  the  grain 
sorghums  and  millets;  but  forage  plants, 
such  as  lucerne,  or  alfalfa,  clover,  field 
peas  and  other  legumes  must  be  grown  to 
feed  the  live-stock  of  the  farm  while 
hardy  drought-resistant  trees  should  be 
planted  for  shelter  and  shade  and  to 
make  the  homestead  more  attractive. 

But  of  all  these  crops  wheat  is  by  far 
the  most  important,  and  the  reason  is  not 
far  to  seek.  Wheat  is  the  most  widely 
used  grain,  and  is  always  in  demand.  It 
is  also  worthy  of  note  that  the  price  of 
wheat  is  steadily  rising,  and  as  this  cereal 
is  generally  of  a  finer  quality  when  raised 
on  dry  lands  than  when  it  is  grown  under 
irrigation,  it  will  probably  long  remain 
the  principal  crop  in  dry-land  farming. 
211 


DRY-FARMING 

The  Great  Wheat  Groups. 

According  to  Jardine  several  hundred 
varieties  of  wheat,  more  or  less  distinct, 
are  grown  in  the  dry-farming  region  of 
the  United  States.  The  great  bulk  of 
these  varieties,  however,  fall  into  four 
groups : 

i.  The  Hard  Spring  Wheats:  (a) 
Common  Varieties,  (b)  Durum  Va- 
rieties. 

ii.  The  Hard  Winter  Wheats. 

in.  The  Semi-Soft  White  or  Inter- 
mountain  Wheats. 

iv.  The  Soft- White  or  Pacific  Coast 
Wheats. 

Broadly  speaking  each  group  is  grown 
in  a  particular  belt  or  zone.  These 
wheat  zones,  of  course,  are  not  sharply 
defined;  still  certain  types  predominate 
in  each. 

212 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

Spring  Wheat  Zone. 

The  Hard  Spring  Wheat  Zone  takes  in 
North  and  South  Dakota  and  a  portion 
of  northwestern  Nebraska.  Of  the  com- 
mon varieties  the  two  best  known  are 
Blue-stem  and  Red  Fife.  The  famous 
wheats  known  as  "No.  1  Hard"  and 
"No.  1  Northern"  which  usually  com- 
mand the  highest  price  on  the  markets  of 
the  world  have  been  developed  from 
these  two  varieties.  The  growing  of 
winter  wheat  is  not  possible  in  this  zone 
owing  to  the  long  severe  winters,  light 
rains  in  the  fall,  and  severe  freezing  and 
thawing  in  the  early  spring.  But  this 
section  may  also  be  spoken  of  as  the 
home  of  the  durum  wheats  in  America; 
and  as  they  seem  destined  to  become  the 
leading  spring  varieties  throughout  the 
whole  semi-arid  West,  a  short  account 
of  their  origin  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

213 


DRY-FARMING 

The  Durum  Wheats.1 

For  more  than  forty  years  there  have 
been  occasional  shipments  into  the 
United  States  of  the  hard,  glossy 
wheats  of  the  so-called  durum  type, 
chiefly  from  Russia,  but  also  from  Al- 
geria and  Chile.  But  it  is  only  during 
the  past  nine  years  that  public  attention 
has  been  specially  directed  to  them,  and 
this  has  been  due  mainly  to  the  publica- 
tions and  efforts  of  the  National  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture.  In  the  year  1900 
Mr.  M.  A.  Carleton,  United  States 
Cerealist,  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  Rus- 
sia. He  traveled  through  the  Durum 
Wheat  Zone  and  secured  a  large  number 
of  varieties  which  were  distributed  to  the 
farmers  and  Experiment  Stations  in  the 
Great  Plains  region  where  the  climate 
and  soil  conditions  are  very  like  those 

1  Also  termed  macaroni  wheats  since  they  are  used  in 
the  manufacture  of  macaroni.  The  term  durum  comes 
from  the  Latin  word  meaning  hard. 

214 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

found  in  Russia  and  in  Algeria,  where 
the  macaroni  wheats  are  grown.  In  1901 
Mr.  Carleton  wrote  on  page  16  of  his 
bulletin  on  Macaroni  wheats:  "The 
normal  yearly  rainfall  of  the  Great 
Plains  at  the  one-hundredth  meridian, 
where  wheat-growing  is  at  present  prac- 
tically non-existent  on  account  of  lack  of 
drought-resistant  varieties,  is  nearly 
three  inches  greater  than  that  for  the 
entire  semi-arid  Volga  region,  which  is 
one  of  the  principal  wheat  regions  of 
Russia,  and  which  produces  the  finest 
macaroni  wheat  in  the  world." 

At  first  these  grains  were  received  with 
but  little  favor,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
they  gave  excellent  yields  and  showed  re- 
markable rust-resistant  and  drought-en- 
during qualities.  But  the  macaroni 
factories  of  America  were  then  using  the 
ordinary  bread  wheats,  and  neither  the 
217 


DRY-FARMING 

mills  nor  the  elevators  would  accept  the 
durum  varieties.  Happily  this  prejudice 
has  entirely  died  down  and  it  is  probable 
that  within  the  next  few  years  these  types 
will  be  used  exclusively  in  the  manu- 
facture of  macaroni.  In  blending  with 
the  softer  varieties  and  as  a  source  of 
pemolina  or  "macaroni  flour"  durum 
wheats  are  now  acknowledged  to  be  un- 
rivaled. But  for  the  dry-farmer  the 
drought-resisting  quality  of  the  durum 
wheat  is  the  most  important  point;  and 
in  the  semi-arid  lands  of  Texas,  Mon- 
tana, Utah,  and  California,  they  have  sur- 
passed all  the  spring  varieties  and  are 
easily  preeminent  in  this  respect.  Their 
rust-resistance  is  also  noteworthy.  This 
was  first  shown  in  a  striking  manner  dur- 
ing the  season  of  1900  when  the  rust 
epidemic  did  so  much  damage  to  the 
common  varieties.  For  that  reason  in 
some  parts  of  Minnesota,  farmers  are 
218 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

now  growing  durum  wheats  in  place  of 
Fife  and  Blue-stem.  But  the  excessive 
humidity  of  the  atmosphere  makes  this 
section  of  the  country  wholly  unsuited  to 
their  growth.  In  short,  durum  wheats 
are  the  best  spring  wheats  to  be  grown 
where  the  summers  are  hot  and  dry;  but 
they  do  not  give  satisfactory  yields  in 
humid  regions.  Durum  wheats  first  be- 
came prominent  in  the  commercial  world 
of  the  United  States  in  the  year  1903 
when  6,000,000  bushels  were  produced; 
the  annual  harvest  has  steadily  risen  until 
today  the  total  crop  is  close  on  100,000,- 
000  bushels. 

Winter  (Crimean)  Wheat  Zone. 

The  zone  in  which  the  hard  winter  or 
Crimean  wheats  are  grown  includes  the 
State  of  Kansas,  southern  and  central 
Nebraska  and  Oklahoma,  the  Panhandle 
of  Texas,  Montana,  Colorado,  and  Al- 
219 


DRY-FARMING 

berta  in  Canada— the  area  of  maximum 
production  being  in  central  Kansas,  70,- 
000,000  bushels  per  annum.  These 
wheats  originated  in  Russia  and  take 
their  name  from  the  peninsula  of  Crimea, 
where  they  have  long  been  grown.  They 
were  first  introduced  into  the  United 
States  by  the  Mennonite  colonists  who 
came  from  Russia  and  brought  some 
seed  with  them. 

The  typical  varieties  of  this  group  are 
the  Turkey— sometimes  called  Turkey 
Red— the  Kharkof,  and  the  Crimean. 
They  are  usually  termed  "hard  red  win- 
ter wheats."  The  Kharkof  is  most  valued 
and  has  proved  very  hardy.  The  wheats 
of  this  group  are  all  bearded,  and  have 
white  chaff  and  hard,  red  berries.  They 
do  not  grow  tall,  but  are  very  heavy 
yielders.  Although  in  great  demand  as 
milling  wheats  they  are  not  thought  equal 
to  the  No.  1  Hard  and  No.  1  Northern 
220 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

grades  of  the  Fife  and  Bluestem  of  the 
Dakotas. 

Intermountain  Wheat  Zone. 

Passing  westward  from  the  Hard  Win- 
ter Wheat-belt  we  come  to  the  Inter- 
mountain  or  Great  Basin  Wheat  Zone. 
The  wheat  of  this  region  may  be  con- 
sidered as  intermediate  between  that  of 
the  Great  Plains  and  that  of  the  Pacific 
Coast.  The  wheat  of  this  belt  is  much 
mixed  with,  however,  a  tendency  to  the 
production  of  a  white  soft  berry  re- 
sembling the  grain  of  the  Pacific  Coast. 
Hence,  the  term  semi-soft  white  wheat.1 

It  cannot  be  said,  as  in  speaking  of  the 
previous  zones,  that  any  particular  va- 
riety is  dominant  in  the  Intermountain 
region,  although  the  winter  sorts  are 
chiefly  grown.  This  is  due  to  the  fact 

1  It  is  of  interest  to  know  that  the  finest  and  cleanest 
seed  is  now  grown  in  Alberta,  being  originally  obtained 
from  Kansas. 

223 


DRY-FARMING 

that  the  locality  in  question  has  up  till 
now  been  of  little  or  no  account  in  the 
world's  wheat  markets.  Nevertheless,  the 
rapid  development  of  dry^f  arming  in  this 
section,  and  the  enormous  areas  which 
are  eminently  suited  to  wheat-growing, 
must  ultimately  reduce  the  number  of  va- 
rieties in  favor  of  one  uniform  dominant 
type.  As  Jardine  wisely  remarks: 
"Fruit-growers  recognize  this  principle 
of  uniformity  and  profit  by  it.  This 
point  has  also  been  forcibly  illustrated  by 
the  durum  wheats  in  this  country.  When 
the  durum  wheat  was  produced  only 
locally  and  in  small  quantities,  it  had  ab- 
solutely no  market,  but  just  as  soon  as 
the  Dakotas  began  to  make  a  specialty 
of  it,  the  sale  became  easier  and  a  market 
was  soon  firmly  established."  In  the 
opinion  of  the  same  authority  the  coming 
wheats  for  the  Intermountain  area  will 
be  the  Crimean  group  for  winter  wheat 
224 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

and  the  durums  for  spring.  The  latter 
are  the  only  varieties  which  have  proved 
capable  of  withstanding  the  dry,  hot 
summers  of  this  region. 


The  Pacific  Wheat  Zone. 

This  zone  comprises  the  San  Joaquin 
and  Sacramento  Valley  in  California, 
and  the  Columbia  Basin  region  of 
Oregon,  Washington,  and  Idaho.  The 
wheats  of  this  belt  are  the  extreme  oppo- 
site of  those  of  the  Kansas  region.  In 
other  words,  they  are  very  soft  and  white, 
and  very  low  in  gluten— the  most  valu- 
able constituent  of  the  wheat  berry- 
while  the  Kansas  grains  are  hard,  red, 
and  rich  in  gluten  and  hence  more  de- 
sirable. The  wheats  of  the  Pacific  belt 
are  not  readily  salable  in  the  Minneapolis 
and  Chicago  markets;  however,  they  sell 
freely  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  in  western 
225 


DRY-FARMING 

Europe  and  the  Orient.  The  main  va- 
rieties are  Defiance,  Little  Club,  White 
Australian,  and  Sonora  in  California; 
Red  Chaff  and  Foise  in  Oregon ;  Palouse, 
Red  Russian,  and  also  Blue-stem,  in 
Washington  and  Idaho.  So  far  all  at- 
tempts to  maintain  high  gluten  content 
in  wheats  brought  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
region  have  failed.  As  soon  as  the  hard 
varieties  have  become  acclimated  in  this 
region  they  are  found  to  be  starchy  and 
soft  and  so  closely  resemble  the  Pacific 
Coast  types  in  chemical  composition. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  wheat 
sections  of  California.  It  is  thus  cus- 
tomary for  the  millers  of  California  to 
import  hard  sorts  so  as  to  strengthen 
their  own  flour.  As  Jardine  points  out 
this  is  another  possible  use  for  durum 
wheats  raised  farther  east.  Such  a 
course  would  increase  the  market  for  the 
durums  and  at  the  same  time  prove  of 
226 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

vast  service  to  the  farmers  and  millers  of 
the  Pacific  Coast. 

Oats. 

There  are  a  number  of  spring  varieties 
of  oats  that  withstand  drought  to  a 
marked  degree.  Among  the  most  prom- 
ising are  the  following:  Sixty-Day, 
Kherson,  Burt,  and  Swedish  Select. 
These  varieties  are  usually  quick  grow- 
ers; they  are  thus  able  to  use  to  best 
advantage  the  early  spring  moisture  and 
by  maturing  soon  escape  the  severe 
droughts  which  may  occur  later  in  the 
season.  A  winter  variety,  known  as  the 
Boswell  Winter  Oats  has  given  excellent 
results  in  Utah  and  is  being  tested  in  the 
Great  Plains  area. 

Barley. 

The  most  drought-resistant  varieties 
of  spring  barleys  belong  to  the  beardless 
227 


DRY-FARMING 

and  hull-less  types,  and  have  proved  ex- 
cellent varieties  to  grow  on  dry  lands. 
They  are  highly  valued  for  stock  feed, 
and  being  spring  crops  are  well  adapted 
to  a  rotation  in  which  they  can  follow 
winter  wheat.  The  Tennessee  Winter 
Barley  has  given  good  results  in  Ne- 
braska and  Kansas  and  is  rapidly  displac- 
ing the  spring  types  in  the  latter  State. 

Spelt  and  Emmer. 

Spelt  and  emmer  are  less  generally 
•known  than  the  other  grains  as  they  have 
only  recently  been  introduced  from 
Russia.  There  is  still  some  confusion 
regarding  spelt  and  emmer.  They  are 
both  generally  called  spelt.  The  two  are 
quite  distinct,  however,  but  they  are  alike 
in  the  fact  that  the  chaff  adheres  closely 
to  the  berry  after  thrashing.  Botani- 
cally,  spelt  and  emmer  are  closely  related 
to  wheat,  but  economically  they  might 
228 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

better  be  classed  with  oats  and  barley 
since  they  are  cultivated  in  the  United 
States  for  stock  food  only.  As  a  mix- 
ture with  other  grains,  such  as  corn,  oats, 
and  barley,  they  are  highly  prized. 

Sorghum. 

Sorghum  is  supposed  to  have  origi- 
nated in  equatorial  Africa.  At  the 
present  time  it  is  more  or  less  extensively 
cultivated  in  all  tropical  and  temperate 
regions  of  the  globe,  and  forms  an  im- 
portant part  of  the  food  supply  of  the 
human  race  as  well  as  of  domestic  ani- 
mals. It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
sorghums  surpass  all  other  crops  in  with- 
standing long  periods  of  drought  and 
hot  winds.  This  fact  alone  has  done 
much  to  make  them  the  leading  crops  in 
the  drier  regions  of  the  United  States. 
Sorghum  is  far  superior  to  corn  (maize) 
in  this  respect  and  will  remain  fresh  and 

12  229 


DRY-FARMING 

green  through  periods  of  drought  that 
would  entirely  destroy  a  corn-field. 
Sorghum  does  excellently  on  the  "red- 
land"  formations  of  Oklahoma  and 
northwestern  Texas.  It  has  also  been 
grown  with  some  success  on  the  alkali 
soils  of  California  New  Mexico,  and 
Arizona. 

Effect  on  the  Land. 

It  is  commonly  said  that  Sorghum  is 
"hard  on  the  land"  and  in  a  sense  this  is 
true.  But  any  crop  which  produces  a 
large  amount  of  forage  or  grain  tends  to 
exhaust  the  soil.  Sorghum  often  affords 
three  cuttings  a  year  in  the  Gulf  States 
and  two  in  the  semi-arid  regions.  It  is 
not  surprising,  then,  that  it  is  hard  on  the 
land.  On  rich  soils,  however,  good  crops 
have  been  secured  for  many  successive 
years  without  any  marked  decrease  in 
soil  fertility.  Ball  writes  on  this  subject 
230 


OATS  GROWN  CONTINUOUSLY,  THIRD  CROP,  YIELD  8  BUSHELS  PER  ACRE, 
EORSYTH  EXPERIMENT  STATION,  MONTANA 

Showing-  evil  effect  of  constant  cropping-  without  summer  fallowing  or  rotation 


OATS  AFTER  A  MOISTURE-SAVING  FALLOW,  YIELD  -.7  BUSHELS  PER  ACRE, 
FORSYTH  DRY-FARM,  MONTANA 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

as  follows:  "It  is  probable  that  the  ob- 
served bad  effect  on  land  is  due  more  to 
the  physical  condition  in  which  the  soil 
is  left  than  to  an  actual  reduction  of 
fertility.  The  large  quantity  of  coarse 
stubble  left  in  the  soil,  especially  where 
the  crop  is  grown  rather  thinly  in  drills, 
hinders  perfect  preparation  for  the  next 
crop.  If  the  land  is  dry  when  plowed 
clumps  of  stubble  are  likely  to  become 
centres  of  great  clods,  which  are  broken 
up  only  with  great  difficulty.  Sorghums 
also  continue  their  growth  later  in  the 
autumn  than  most  other  crops,  and  thus 
continue  to  remove  moisture  from  the 
soil  until  a  late  date.  If  the  land  is  then 
sown  to  a  winter  crop  there  is  not  suffi- 
cient moisture  remaining  to  give  it  a 
successful  start,  and  the  failure  is  then 
laid  to  the  impoverishment  of  the  soil  by 
the  preceding  sorghum  crop.  This  com- 
plaint has  been  more  frequently  made 
233 


DRY-FARMING 

against  Kaffir  corn  than  against  the  sac- 
charine sorghums." 

Classification  of  Sorghums. 

There  are  a  great  many  varieties  of 
Sorghums.  They  hybridize  or  cross  very 
readily  and  the  number  of  different  sorts 
seem  to  be  constantly  increasing.  All 
forms,  however,  grown  in  the  United 
States  may  be  separated  into  four  classes 
or  groups:  (1)  Broom  Corns.  (2)  Sor- 
gos,  Saccharine  or  Sweet  Sorghums. 
(3)  Kaffir  corns.  (4)  Durras. 

Of  these  the  broom  corns  are  grown 
only  for  their  brush,  the  sorgos  for  for- 
age and  syrup,  the  Kaffir  corns  for  grain 
and  forage,  and  the  durras  almost  ex- 
clusively for  grain. 

Broom  Corns. 

The  broom  corns  have  straight  stems 
which  do  not  branch  from  the  upper 
234 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

nodes,  or  joints,  and  very  long,  straight, 
loose,  open  seed-heads,  usually  light-col- 
ored, which  are  used  in  the  making  of 
brooms  and  brushes.  The  stalk  is  dry  and 
pithy,  lacking  the  sweet  juice  of  the  sac- 
charine sorghums  to  which  broom  corn  is 
most  closely  related. 

Saccharine  Sorghums. 

The  sweet  sorghums  are  popularly 
known  by  reason  of  their  sweet  sap  or 
juice  from  which  syrup  and  sugar  are 
made.  In  general,  they  are  of  tall  and 
leafy  growth,  branching  only  sparingly 
at  the  upper  nodes,  or  joints,  and  not 
stooling  much  at  the  base.  The  seed-head 
or  panicle  varies  from  the  close,  compact 
"club"  head  of  the  Sumac  sorghum  to 
the  loose  and  often  widely  spreading 
head  of  the  Amber  variety.  The  seeds 
are  red  in  the  Sumac  and  reddish-yellow 
in  the  Orange  and  Amber  sorghums, 
235 


DRY-FARMING 

and  usually  protrude  a  little  from  be- 
tween the  glumes  or  chaff. 

Non-Saccharine  Sorghums. 

Non-saccharine  sorghums  have  usually 
a  stouter  stalk,  with  a  fair  amount  of 
juice,  which  is,  however,  less  abundant 
and  less  sugary  than  in  the  sweet 
sorghums.  On  account  of  the  position 
of  their  heads  and  the  shape  of  their  seeds 
they  are  readily  separated  into  two  great 
classes  namely  (a)  The  Kaffir  Corns  and 
(b)  TheDurras  (Dhomas). 

The  Kaffir  group  includes  Red  Kaffir, 
White  Kaffir,  Black-hulled  White  Kaffir, 
and  White  Milo  or  Large  African  Mil- 
let. Kaffir  corns  are  all  characterized  by 
erect,  rather  long  and  compact,  cylin- 
drical heads  full  of  egg-shaped  (with  the 
large  end  outermost)  seeds  which  are 
either  white  or  red  as  indicated  by  the 
name.  White  Milo  Kaffir  corn  may  be 
236 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

distinguished  from  Black-hulled  White 
Kaffir  corn  by  its  much  better  growth, 
longer  internodes  (with  space  between 
the  joints  of  the  stem),  and  larger  and 
lighter  colored,  yellowish  leaves. 

The  durra  group  comprises  Milo, 
white  durra  ("Jerusalem  Corn,"  "Rice 
Corn,"  "White  Egyptian  Corn")  and 
brown  durra  ("Brown  Egyptian 
Corn").  The  durras  are  characterized 
by  dry  and  rather  pithy  stems  and  large, 
oval  or  egg-shaped,  mostly  pendent 
("goose-hecked")  heads.  The  number 
of  leaves  on  each  stalk  is  only  8  to  10  on 
the  average.  This  scanty  foliage  and  the 
pithy  stem  make  them  (the  durras)  of 
little  value  for  forage  in  comparison  with 
the  Kaffirs  and  Sorgus.  However,  the 
seeds  of  the  durras  are  larger  than  the 
latter.  The  best  known  of  this  group  is 
milo,  first  known  as  "Yellow  Millo 
Maize."  The  adjective  "yellow"  was 
237 


DRY-FARMING 

applied  because  of  the  yellowish  color  of 
the  seeds  and  also  because  a  white-seeded 
sorghum,  related  to  Kaffir  corn,  was  then 
being  sold  as  "White  Millo  Maize."  It 
is  now  commonly  known  as  Dwarf  Milo, 
Yellow  Milo  and  Milo  "Maize,"  but  the 
last  name  should  not  be  used  as  it  is  apt 
to  confuse  it  with  corn.  The  simple  term 
milo  is  the  best. 

Milo  was  first  introduced  into  the 
country  from  Africa  about  1880.  In  the 
Panhandle  of  Texas,  Oklahoma,  and 
Kansas  it  is  widely  grown  on  account  of 
its  drought  resistance  and  comparative 
earliness.  Dwarf  milo  is  merely  ordinary 
milo  grown  in  the  dry  plains  where, 
owing  to  lack  of  moisture,  it  becomes  low 
in  stature.  The  heads  of  the  common 
varieties  of  milo  are  mostly  pendent  and 
consequently  hard  to  harvest;  but  the 
improved  or  selected  types  developed  by 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  have 
238 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

erect  heads  and  consequently  may  be  har- 
vested with  grain-headers.  The  im- 
proved milo  crop  is  adapted  to  rapid  and 
economical  handling  on  a  large  scale  by 
machinery.  Milo  needs  a  soil  very  much 
like  that  required  for  corn.  Four  pounds 
of  seed  to  the  acre  have  given  the  best 
results  in  the  Texas  Panhandle,  and  the 
yield  varies  from  25  to  55  bushels  per 
acre.  Milo  is  mainly  used  as  a  feeding 
grain  on  the  dry-farms  of  the  West;  but 
except  for  poultry  the  grain  should  be 
cracked  or  ground  before  feeding.  Milo 
is  now  widely  grown  in  western  Texas, 
New  Mexico,  California,  Oklahoma,  and 
Kansas,  and  is  proving  of  great  value  as 
a  dry-land  grain  crop.  It  seems  well 
worthy  of  trial  in  the  whole  Great  Basin 
region.  Lastly,  the  group  of  Kowliangs 
or  Chinese  grain  sorghums  are  the  most 
promising  early  strains  yet  discovered. 
The  best  variety  matured  in  the  Pan- 
239 


DRY-FARMING 

handle  of  Texas  in  eighty-five  days.  This 
is  at  an  elevation  of  from  3000  to  4000 
feet  with  an  average  rainfall  of  22 
inches. 

Eye. 

Rye,  well  known  as  a  good  dry-farm- 
ing crop,  can  nearly  always  be  relied 
upon  to  produce  a  crop  under  conditions 
of  drought  too  severe  for  wheat  or  other 
grain.  There  are  both  spring  and  win- 
ter varieties.  The  spring  types  are  most 
valuable  as  green  manuring  crops,  and 
also  for  summer  forage  and  pasturage. 
Winter  varieties  are  most  profitable  for 
the  production  of  grain  and  forage.  The 
value  of  rye  as  forage  is  almost  equal  to 
that  of  timothy  if  cut  at  the  proper  time. 
Since  rye  produces  a  heavy  foliage  even 
under  very  dry  conditions,  it  is  specially 
esteemed  as  a  dry-farm  forage  crop.  Its 
grain,  too,  is  valuable  as  a  stock  food. 
240 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

Emmer. 

Emmer,  a  species  of  wheat,  has  recently 
attracted  much  notice  as  a  valuable  grain 
for  semi-arid  regions.  It  is  largely  grown 
in  Russia  and  Germany  and  probably 
was  first  introduced  into  the  United 
States  by  the  German  and  Russian  colo- 
nists who  settled  in  the  Northwest.  In 
Russia  it  is  mainly  grown  in  the  Upper 
Volga  region  where  the  annual  rainfall  is 
about  16  inches.  The  name  "emmer"  is  a 
German  word,  and  should  be  used  instead 
of  "spelt,"  by  which  it  is  often  erroneously 
called.  The  heads  of  emmer  are  almost 
always  bearded;  while  the  spikelets  are 
usually  two-grained.  The  emmer  may 
be  distinguished  from  spelt  as  follows: 
the  spikelets  of  spelt  are  far  apart,  stand 
out  from  the  stem,  and  form  a  very  loose 
head;  while  the  spikelets  of  emmer  lie 
close  together  and  form  a  compact  head. 
Further,  the  grain  of  emmer  is  harder 
241 


DRY-FARMING 

and  redder  than  that  of  spelt.  Emmer 
is  a  much  harder  and  quicker  grow- 
ing plant  than  spelt.  It  can  withstand 
severe  drought,  and,  to  a  large  degree, 
leaf -rust  and  smut.  Emmer  will  produce 
a  fair  crop  under  almost  any  condition  of 
soil  and  climate,  but  thrives  best  in  a  dry 
prairie  region,  with  short  hot  summers, 
where  it  gives  excellent  yields.  It  will 
grow  on  poor  lands,  in  stony  ground,  in 
forest  regions,  and  on  the  prairie.  A  dry 
hot  climate  seems  to  produce  in  emmer  a 
hard,  bright,  clean  grain.  In  Russia  a 
large  amount  of  this  grain  is  used  for 
human  food,  such  as  in  porridge  and 
cakes.  The  high  protein  content  would 
indicate  that  it  should  make  very  nutri- 
tious bread.  Moreover,  emmer  has 
proved  of  great  value  for  improving  other 
varieties  of  wheat.  By  crossing  it  with 
the  common.varieties,  the  following  char- 
acters are  secured:  (1)  Better  resistance 
242 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

to  fungous  attacks.  (2)  Greater 
drought  resistance.  (3)  Increase  in 
productiveness.  ( 4 )  Non-shattering. 
(5)  Stiffness  of  straw.  (6)  Increase 
of  gluten  content.  Crosses  with  emmer 
usually  show  a  great  increase  in  general 
vigor  and  hardiness. 

Corn. 

It  is  rather  remarkable  that  more  corn 
is  not  grown  in  the  semi-arid  zone.  It  is 
incorrect  to  say  as  a  recent  writer  does 
that  "The  West  is  not  a  corn  country," 
when  we  recall  the  splendid  crops  raised 
in  Kansas. 

Corn,  like  sorghum,  is  a  drought-re- 
sistant crop  and  if  planted  in  deep,  well 
tilled  land  will  successfully  withstand  a 
long  period  of  drought.  Corn  may  be 
planted  in  drills  or  sown  in  squares  with 
a  check-row  planter.  In  Kansas  it  is 
usually  planted  with  a  lister.  Cultiva- 
243 


DRY-FARMING 

tion  should  begin  a  day  or  two  after  the 
crop  is  planted  and  it  is  often  harrowed 
until  the  plants  are  six  to  eight  inches 
high  in  order  to  keep  the  soil  from  get- 
ting hard  and  crusted.  Buffum  says: 
"Under  dry-farming,  with  proper  tools, 
one  man  can  plant  and  tend  160  acres  of 
corn,  or  of  sorghum.  He  must  have 
plenty  of  horses,  gang-listers,  large  har- 
rows and  gang-weeders."  It  is  impos- 
sible to  recommend  any  one  variety  of 
corn  that  would  prove  adapted  to  the 
whole  of  the  West.  But  the  dry-farmer 
should  try  to  obtain  a  variety  which  is 
likely  to  suit  his  particular  conditions 
and  grow  his  own  seed-corn.  By  careful 
selection  for  two  or  three  years  he  can 
easily  increase  his  annual  yield  from 
three  to  five  bushels. 

The  best  corn-breeding  work  in  the 
United  States  has  been  done  by  the  Illi- 
nois Experiment  Station ;  and  the  farmer 
244 


li  i 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

might  well  obtain  one  or  other  of  the 
standard  varieties  recommended  by  that 
station,  or  such  superior  corns  as  Min- 
nesota No.  13  and  Wisconsin  No.  7,  to  be 
obtained  from  the  experiment  stations  of 
these  States.  But  the  important  thing  to 
remember  is,  as  far  as  possible,  to  grow 
only  one  or  two  varieties  and  to  plant 
them  far  enough  apart  to  avoid  mixing 
or  cross-fertilization. 

It  is  not  hard  to  foretell  that  corn  is 
destined  to  become  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant dry-farm  crops  in  the  semi-arid 
section  of  the  United  States,  because  of 
its  great  value  as  a  fodder  and  as  a  grain 
crop. 

Alfalfa  (Lucern). 

Alfalfa1  is  a  very  valuable  crop  for  the 
dry-farmer  and  it  is  now  being  grown  in 

1  Alfalfa,  the  Arabic  name  by  which  this  plant  was 
known  in  Spain  and  carried  thence  to  Mexico,  California 
and  the  western  United  States.  It  would  be  well,  how- 

247 


DRY-FARMING 

every  State  in  the  West.  It  has  given 
excellent  yields  on  the  dry  lands  of 
Texas,  Oklahoma,  Utah,  Kansas  and 
central  Nebraska.  Owing  to  its  deep- 
going  tap-root  alfalfa  will  stand  a  long 
siege  of  drought ;  and  the  writer  has  seen 
splendid  fields  of  lucern  in  Utah  with  a 
rainfall  of  about  15  inches  per  annum. 
Alfalfa  grows  best  in  a  deep,  well- 
drained  loamy  soil.  It  does  not  thrive  in 
a  cold,  wet  land ;  nor  in  loose,  sandy  soil. 
Like  all  other  legumes,  lucern  has  the 
power  of  absorbing  nitrogen  from  the 
air.  It  thus  adds  fertility  to  the  soil  and 
when  plowed  under  it  is  valuable  as  a 
fertilizer  for  worn-out  lands.  It  is  not, 
however,  so  well  suited  for  short  rotations 
as  clover,  but  may  be  used  to  great  ad- 
vantage  in  a  five  or  ten  year  rotation  with 
wheat,  corn,  potatoes  or  sugar  beets. 

ever,  if  this  name  were  given  up  in  favor  of  the  synonym 
lucern,  now  universally  used  in  Utah,  England,  Europe, 
and  South  Africa. 

248 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

Lucern  should  never  be  grown  in  or- 
chards as  it  is  apt  to  withdraw  too  much 
moisture  from  the  trees.  The  cause  of 
the  failure  of  alfalfa  is  very  often  due  to 
careless  preparation  of  the  soil.  New 
land  should  be  cultivated  for  one  year  at 
least,  and  better  for  two  or  three,  before 
it  is  seeded.  This  crop  is  easy  to  grow 
and  to  keep  clean,  provided  it  is  sown  in 
a  mellow,  weedless  seed-bed,  and  no  crop 
responds  more  generously  to  good  treat- 
ment. The  effect  of  frequent  tillage  is 
really  amazing. 

Recently,  a  new  industry  has  arisen  in 
the  semi-arid  regions,  namely,  the  grow- 
ing of  alfalfa  for  seed.  It  is  found  that 
a  better  quality  of  seed  can  be  raised  on 
dry  lands  than  under  irrigation  or  in  the 
humid  districts  of  the  East.  For  if  too 
much  water  is  given  to  the  crop  during 
the  time  of  flowering  and  seed  forming, 
the  strength  of  the  plant  goes  to  foliage 
13  249 


DRY-FARMING 

rather  than  to  seed  production.  This 
opens  up  a  new  and  practically  limitless 
field  of  work  for  the  dry-farmer.  Al- 
falfa, for  seed,  should  not  be  sown  in 
quite  the  same  manner  as  for  an  ordinary 
hay  crop.  To  secure  strong  thrifty 
plants,  prevent  crowding,  and  permit 
cultivation  the  seed  should  be  sown  very 
thinly  in  rows  from  two  and  one  half  to 
three  and  one  half  feet  apart  and  the 
young  plants  can  be  thinned  out  with  a 
hoe,  as  for  sugar  beets,  or  harrowed  cross- 
wise to  cut  out  a  portion  of  the  crop. 
When  a  small  amount  of  seed,  three  to 
six  pounds  per  acre,  is  used,  it  may  be 
mixed  with  ashes  to  help  to  spread  it 
evenly.  The  yield  of  seed  should  be  from 
five  to  seven  bushels  per  acre,  but  on  good 
soils  as  high  as  ten  to  twelve  bushels  may 
be  expected.  Lucern  weighs  60  Ibs.  to 
the  bushel.  In  practice  the  decision  as  to 
whether  the  crop  should  be  used  for  hay 
250 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

or  saved  for  seed  may  depend  on  the 
weather.  If  the  season  is  wet,  a  hay  crop 
is  generally  harvested ;  if  dry,  the  field  is 
allowed  to  go  to  seed.  The  best  time 'to 
cut  a  lucern  crop  for  seed  is  when  about 
half  the  pods  have  turned  brown.  For 
hay  lucern  should  be  cut  just  as  it  is  be- 
ginning to  bloom.  After  flowering  it 
loses  its  feeding-value.  If  the  field  is 
fairly  uniform,  the  proper  stage  for  cut- 
ting is  when  about  one  tenth  of  the  plants 
are  beginning  to  flower.  Alfalfa  is  a 
highly  nutritious  and  palatable  fodder 
for  all  classes  of  farm  animals.  All  stock 
eat  it  greedily  either  in  the  green  form  or 
as  hay.  For  the  best  results,  however,  it 
should  be  combined  with  some  grain,  such 
as  corn,  barley  or  oats. 

Potatoes. 

Potatoes  are  among  the  most  valuable 
of  dry-farm  crops  and  are  now  being 
251 


DRY-FARMING 

grown  on  an  extensive  scale  in  the  semi- 
arid  regions.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that 
potatoes  raised  under  irrigation  tend  to 
deteriorate,  consequently  there  is  a  large 
and  growing  demand  for  dry-land  seed. 
In  a  good,  deep  sandy  loam  this  crop 
will  thrive  with  comparatively  little 
moisture.  The  following  varieties  are 
chiefly  grown  in  the  West:  Ohio,  Mam- 
moth Pearl,  Rural  New  Yorker  and 
Burbank. 

It  is  important  that  a  community  of 
settlers  who  are  just  starting  to  farm 
should  plant  only  one  or  two  varieties  in 
order  to  supply  their  market  with  a  uni- 
form product.  Potato  land  should  be 
plowed  deep.  Usually  four  horses  are 
put  on  a  fourteen -inch  plow  and  the  fur- 
row turned  from  eight  to  ten  inches  deep. 
If  it  is  sod,  the  plowing  is  generally  done 
to  a  depth  of  five  or  six  inches  the  first 
year,  but  the  ground  should  be  disked 
252 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

before  plowing,  in  order  to  form  a  fine 
seed-bed  on  turning  over. 

Potatoes  on  dry  lands  should  receive 
deep  and  thorough  cultivation.  When 
the  plants  are  four  or  five  inches  high, 
cultivate  deep  and  near  the  rows.  This 
may  be  done  each  week  or  ten  days,  run- 
ning the  cultivator  shovels  farther  from 
the  plants  as  they  grow  larger,  and 
throwing  the  soil  toward  the  rows.  If 
potatoes  are  to  be  grown  on  a  large  scale, 
a  good  potato  planter  is  necessary.  The 
seed  should  be  planted  from  four  to  six 
inches  deep  in  rows  three  to  three  and 
one  half  inches  apart  and  twelve  to 
eighteen  inches  in  the  row.  The  culti- 
vator and  harrow  should  be  used  to  level 
the  soil  and  form  a  moisture-saving 
mulch.  Large  potatoes  are  not  desirable 
and  the  farmer  should  strive  to  raise  a 
medium-tuber,  uniform  in  size,  shape  and 
255 


DRY-FARMING 

color,  free  from  scab  or  crack  in  order  to 
secure  the  top  market  prices. 

Canadian  Field  Peas.1 

This  crop  has  given  good  results  in 
Montana  and  elsewhere  and  should  be 
tried  in  every  dry-farm.  Field  peas  have 
a  two-fold  value.  The  grain  and  straw 
furnish  valuable  food  for  all  classes  of 
farm  animals ;  and  the  crop  is  one  of  the 
best  soil  improvers,  because  of  its  ability 
to  take  free  nitrogen  from  the  air  and 
add  it  to  the  soil. 

The  best  success  in  the  growing  of  field 
peas  has  been  gained  on  clay  loam  soils 
which  contained  some  humus  and  some 
lime.  Very  light,  sandy  soils  do  not 
give  enough  vine  growth;  while  very 

1  This  does  not  afford  an  accurate  description,  since 
many  varieties  of  this  particular  strain  exist.  During  the 
past  few  years  the  Montana  Experiment  Station  has  grown 
nineteen  different  varieties  of  field  peas,  all  possessing  dis- 
tinctive characters,  and  yet  all  belonging  to  the  general 
class  known  as  "Canadian  Field  Peas." 

256 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

rich,  black  soils  produce  too  much  leaf  at 
the  expense  of  the  pod.  Wet  lands  are 
wholly  unsuited  to  the  growth  of  peas. 

Peas  may  be  planted  either  on  spring- 
or  fall-plowed  land.  Usually,  fall  plow- 
ing gives  the  best  results.  The  soil  should 
be  fine  and  mellow  at  the  time  of  seeding. 
Canadian  Field  Peas  should  be  one  of 
the  first  farm  crops  sown  in  the  spring. 
It  is  customary  to  sow  with  a  drill  at  the 
rate  of  from  60  to  100  pounds  of  seed 
per  acre. 

Peas  should  be  cut  when  the  grain  is 
hard  in  the  pods  and  before  the  pods 
have  dried  sufficiently  to  crack  open. 
Until  a  few  years  ago  peas  had  to  be  cut 
with  the  scythe,  making  the  crop  hard 
and  dear  to  handle.  But  the  introduction 
of  the  pea  harvester  attachment  to  the 
ordinary  mower  has  made  it  possible  to 
handle  the  crop  more  cheaply  and  with 
much  greater  ease.  Three  men  and  one 
257 


DRY-FARMING 

team  of  horses  with  an  ordinary  mower 
attachment  will  cut  ten  acres  of  peas  in 
a  day. 

Leguminous  Crops. 

Those  crops  which  belong  to  the  pea 
or  pod-forming  family  are  of  special 
value  to  the  dry-farmer,  for,  in  the  first 
place,  they  may  be  grown  as  forage 
plants  or,  secondly,  utilized  for  green 
manuring.  Now  the  plowing  under  of 
green  crops  is  one  of  the  oldest  methods 
of  maintaining  the  fertility  of  the  soil. 
But  it  was  only  within  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  that  the  great  value  of  the 
legume  was  made  clear.  Most  farmers 
are  aware  that  the  roots  of  leguminous 
plants  possess  small  warts,  usually 
termed  nodules  or  tubercles,  by  means  of 
which  they  can  make  use  of  the  free 
nitrogen  of  the  air.  Further,  these 
nodules  are  caused  by  certain  germs 
258 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

which,  while  feeding  on  the  legume,  pro- 
vide it  with  nitrogen  drawn  from  the  air. 
These  nitrifying  bacteria  vary  in  size 
and  shape  according  to  the  plant.  Thus, 
while  in  red  clover,  they  are  usually  small 
and  round,  on  the  bean  they  may  reach 
the  size  of  a  pigeon's  egg.  Again,  every 
legume  has  its  own  special  strain  of  bac- 
teria. For  example,  the  germ  on  the 
lucern  root  is  different  from  that  on  the 
clover  plant  and  that  on  the  cow  pea  is 
distinct  from  that  of  the  soy  bean.  Land 
may  be  inoculated  with  the  legume  or- 
ganisms by  scattering  soil  from  a  field 
where  the  crop  has  been  recently  grown, 
or  by  using  artificial  cultures  of  the 
proper  bacteria.  According  to  Piper, 
there  are  in  the  United  States  fifteen 
leguminous  field  crops  which  are  grown 
more  or  less  extensively  for  feeding  pur- 
poses or  for  green  manuring.  In  the 
approximate  order  of  their  importance 
259 


DRY-FARMING 

they  are  as  follows :  Red  Clover,  Lucern, 
Cow  Peas,  Alsike  Clover,  Crimson 
Clover,  White  Clover,  Canada  Peas,  Soy 
Beans,  Peanuts,  Vetch,  Velvet  Beans, 
Japan  Clover  and  Bur  Clover.  A  few 
more  are  cultivated  to  a  less  extent,  as 
Sweet  Clover,  Beggarweed,  Grass  Peas, 
Penugreek  and  Horse  Beans.  .  Many 
others  have  been  tested  in  an  experi- 
mental way,  but  as  yet  are  not  grown  as 
crops.  From  an  agricultural  point  of 
view  legumes  may  be  classified  into  three 
groups : 

1.  Summer    annuals,    including    cow 
peas,  soy  beans,  peanuts,  beans,  velvet 
beans  and  in  the  North  common  vetch 
and  Canada  peas. 

2.  Winter  annuals,  comprising  crim- 
son clover,  bur  clover,  hairy  vetch,  and  in 
the  South  common  vetch  and  Canada 
peas. 

3.  Biennials  or  perennials,  embracing 

260 


DRY-LAND  CROPS 

red  clover,  white  clover,  alsike  clover, 
lucern  and  sweet  clover. 

Each  of  these  crops  can  be  grown 
advantageously  only  in  certain  clearly 
defined  regions.  Moreover,  for  the  par- 
ticular purpose  in  view  it  rarely  happens 
that  a  choice  of  two  or  more  equally 
valuable  legumes  is  offered.  Usually  one 
is  so  much  superior  to  any  other  that 
substitution  is  practically  out  of  the 
question.  In  a  few  cases,  however, .the 
use  of  one  legume  in  place  of  another  is 
practicable.  Thus,  cow  peas  and  soy 
beans  are  agriculturally  much  alike  and 
are  adapted  to  the  same  States.  In  a  like 
manner  crimson  clover,  bur  clover,  and 
the  vetches  may  be  used,  one  in  place  of 
another,  over  a  large  area.  In  some  sec- 
tions of  the  country  the  culture  of  red 
clover  is  no  longer  profitable,  owing  to 
various  diseases.  Alsike  clover  has  been 
used  to  some  extent  as  a  substitute,  but 
261 


DRY-FARMING 

the  yield  is  ordinarily  much  less.  There 
is  also  an  increasing  use  of  lucern  in 
place  of  red  clover,  but  with  lucern  the 
best  practice  is  to  keep  the  fields  in  crop 
for  three  years  or  longer. 


262 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   TRACTION-ENGINE   IN   DRY-FARMING 

npHERE  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
A  traction-engine  is  destined  to  play 
a  prominent  part  in  the  development  of 
dry-farming  more  especially  where  large 
areas  of  virgin  prairie  require  to  be 
turned  over.  At  the  same  time  every 
farmer  who  is  thinking  of  purchasing  a 
steam  or  gasoline  traction-engine  should 
remember  the  following  points.  In  the 
first  place  the  steam-engine  will  never 
wholly  do  away  with  the  necessity  of 
having  horses  for  the  performance  of 
various  minor  farm  duties.  Secondly, 
and  most  important,  the  passage  of  a 
heavy  engine  over  the  ground  tends  to 
hammer  the  soil  to  stone-like  hardness. 
It  is  thus  apt  to  become  inert  and  unre- 
263 


DRY-FARMING 

sponsive,  and  what  is  still  worse  the  fine 
natural  tilth  is  liable  to  be  injured.  Such 
a  condition  may  last  for  several  seasons. 
Take,  for  example,  an  old  traveled  road. 
Plow  it  up  and  note  how  long  it  will  be 
before  such  land  gives  a  satisfactory 
crop.  In  the  same  way  it  may  be  a  con- 
siderable time  before  ground  that  has 
been  packed  hard  by  the  weight  of  a 
traveling  engine  responds  to  cultivation. 
Of  course  where  the  land  is  in  sod  and 
dry  the  actual  damage  done  is  probably 
very  slight.  Another  matter  which  the 
farmer  has  to  consider  in  the  more  remote 
dry  regions  is  the  question  of  water  and 
coal.  If  water  has  to  be  hauled  over  two 
miles,  it  is  doubtful  whether  one  man  and 
four  horses  will  be  able  to  keep  the  en- 
gine supplied.  As  regards  coal,  if  it  has 
to  be  hauled  six  or  eight  miles,  it  will 
require  a  man  and  his  team  for  at  least 
three  days  in  the  week. 
264 


THE  TRACTION-ENGINE 

Again,  the  constant  traveling  over 
rough  ground,  the  jarring  of  the  cogs, 
and  the  accumulation  of  dust  in  the 
gearing  makes  it  hard  to  keep  this  sort 
of  machinery  in  proper  order.  Parts  are 
very  apt  to  become  loose  or  worn  out  and 
the  whole  outfit  may  be  laid  up  for  sev- 
eral days,  pending  repairs,  at  the  most 
critical  period  of  the  plowing  season. 
Another  trouble  is  the  difficulty  of  get- 
ting efficient  engineers— men  who  have 
had  some  experience  in  running  trac- 
tion-engines for  plowing.  Stationary 
or  locomotive  engineers  do  not  seem  to 
understand  how  to  work  these  engines, 
although  they  are  easy  enough  to 
manipulate.  Notwithstanding  all  these 
disadvantages,  the  manufacturers  are 
constantly  striving  to  improve  their 
machines  and  the  popularity  of  the 
traction-engine  is  growing  rapidly.  This 
season  a  very  large  percentage  of  the 
265 


DRY-FARMING 

wheat  lands  of  western  North  Dakota— 
where  coal  is  cheap  and  abundant— will 
be  turned  over  by  the  steam  plow. 

Let  us  take  as  a  typical  example  a  25- 
horse-power  engine  operating  in  North 
Dakota.  Such  an  engine  equipped  for 
plowing  costs  about  $2000,  while  the 
plows  themselves  run  from  $125  to  $600 
depending  upon  the  make.  A  25-horse- 
power  engine  with,  six  14-inch  plows 
generally  averages  from  13  to  14  acres 
per  day,  plowing  three  to  five  inches 
deep.  The  fuel  used  in  this  State  is  lig- 
nite and  costs  from  $2  to  $3  per  ton  in 
the  field,  according  to  the  distance  from 
the  mine.  This  size  of  engine  will  use 
about  four  tons  of  coal  per  day.  The 
engineer  usually  receives  from  $3.50  to 
$4.50  per  day,  and  the  other  men,  of 
whom  there  are  usually  three  or  four, 
from  $1.25  to  $1.50.  The  average  total 
expense  is  reckoned  at  about  $20  per 
266 


THE  TRACTION-ENGINE 

day.  Most  of  the  work  of  steam  cultiva- 
tion is  done  by  contract;  the  ordinary 
price  charged  for  breaking  up  virgin 
land  is  $3.50  per  acre,  or  $4.35  for  plow- 
ing, disking  and  seeding.  Naturally,  the 
outlay  for  repairs  depends  largely  on  the 
skill  of  the  engineer,  and  the  care  which 
he  takes  of  his  engine.  In  the  Northwest 
there  are  from  five  to  six  months  in  the 
year  during  which  steam  cultivation  can 
be  profitably  employed,  and  the  maxi- 
mum amount  of  work  which  such  an  out- 
fit as  that  just  mentioned  could  do,  in  a 
favorable  season,  would  be  about  1500 
acres.  Traction-engines  intended  for 
steam  plowing  and  thrashing  are  usually 
built  more  strongly  than  the  ordinary 
traction-engine,  both  as  regards  the 
gearing  and  the  boiler.  Steam  traction- 
engines  for  plowing  usually  have  a 
capacity  of  from  25  to  40  horse-power, 
and  new  land  is  generally  plowed  to  a 
267 


DRY-FARMING 

depth  of  from  four  to  five  inches,  but,  of 
course,  it  is  possible  to  plow  to  a  much 
greater  depth  if  desired.  There  are  but 
few  reliable  data  as  to  the  cost  per  acre 
for  steam  cultivation,  and  the  figures 
given  by  operators  vary  all  the  way  from 
50  cents  to  $3  per  acre.  A  safe  estimate 
would  probably  be  about  $2  per  acre. 

Gasoline  Traction-Engine. 

The  gasoline  traction-engine  has  sev- 
eral distinct  advantages  over  the  steam 
traction-engine.  In  the  first  place  it  is 
much  cheaper:  a  gasoline  engine  costs 
from  $1000  to  $2000  less  than  a  steam 
engine  of  the  same  capacity;  and  two 
men  are  sufficient  to  run  it  compared 
with  the  three  or  four  required  for  a 
steam  outfit.  Further,  statistics  show 
that  land  can  be  plowed  up  with  this  type 
of  engine  more  cheaply  than  with  steam 
power.  But  the  greatest  merit  of  the 
268 


A  GASOLENE-TRACTION  PLOWING  OUTFIT  AT  WORK  ON  A  3000-ACRE  FARM 
IN  MONTANA 


THE  BATES  GRUBBER  FOR  CLEARING  SAGE-BRUSH 
Pulled  with  35  H.  P.  Engine 


THE  TRACTION-ENGINE 

gasoline  engine  when  compared  with  the 
steam  engine  is  the  quickness  with  which 
it  can  be  heated  in  the  morning.  In  fact 
you  can  start  right  off  at  once  just  as  you 
would  do  with  an  automobile.  A  22 
horse-power  gasoline  engine  uses  35  gal- 
lons of  gasoline  per  day  and  40  gallons 
of  water.  This  amount  will  last  for  ten 
hours  and  plow  about  fifteen  acres  per 
day  on  virgin  land  using  14  disc  plows. 

Mr.  William  M.  Jardine,  United 
States  Agronomist,  in  charge  of  dry-land 
cereals,  discusses  the  merits  of  a  typical 
gasoline  outfit  working  in  Montana  as 
follows : 

"This  outfit — 22  horse-power — had 
been  running  for  ten  days  and  had 
averaged  during  that  time  a  little  more 
than  25  acres  a  day  on  heavy  sod,  plow- 
ing to  a  depth  of  4  inches  and  turning 
it  over  in  good  shape.  The  cost,  includ- 
ing labor,  was  about  80  cents  an  acre. 
271 


DRY-FARMING 

The  two  young  men  operating  the  en- 
gine were  inexperienced  hands,  and 
yet  everything  seemed  to  be  moving 
smoothly.  They  informed  me  that  they 
had  thus  far  met  with  no  serious  delays 
on  account  of  breakages.  The  contract 
price  for  breaking  sod  land  in  Montana 
varies  from  $4  to  $5  per  acre.  It  would 
require  25  horses  and  5  men,  at  a  cost  of 
not  less  than  $3.50  to  $4.50  per  acre,  to 
do  the  same  amount  of  work  per  day  that 
these  two  young  men  were  doing  with 
their  engine.  The  gasoline-engine  prop- 
osition for  plowing  and  other  farming 
operations  is  entirely  feasible  where 
farming  is  done  on  a  large  scale,  but  it 
would  not  be  practicable  for  the  small 
farmer  to  own  and  operate  an  outfit. 
However,  a  number  of  small  farmers 
could  join  together  in  the  purchase  of  an 
engine  without  involving  themselves  as 
heavily  as  by  purchasing  the  horses  nec- 
272 


THE  TRACTION-ENGINE 

essary  to  do  the  same  amount  of  work.1 
This  method  is  followed  in  the  West  in 
buying  thrashing  outfits  and  is  found 
thoroughly  practicable.  If  it  is  possible 
to  produce  crops  at  a  cost  of  $2  to  $4  less 
per  acre  by  the  use  of  gasoline  engines 
on  our  dry-farms  this  method  should  be 
adopted.  The  saving  would  be  remark- 
able, especially  where  the  average  yield  of 
wheat  per  acre  probably  does  not  exceed 
15  bushels.  Some  20  of  these  plowing 
outfits  have  been  placed  in  Montana  this 
year.  In  my  judgment  the  gasoline 
plowing  outfit  is  here  to  stay  and  will  aid 
materially  in  the  cheap  production  of 
farm  crops  on  our  dry-lands." 

The  Double  Engine  System. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  the 
writer  enumerated  the  disadvantages  of 

1  In  the  West,  1300-  to  1600-pound  work  horses  cost 
from  $200  to  $300  each. 

273 


DRY-FARMING 

the  direct  traction  method,  that  is  to  say, 
where  the  engine  travels  over  the  land 
and  drags  the  plows,  harrows,  packers, 
and  seeders  along  with  it.  This  may  be 
avoided  by  what  is  termed  the  double  en- 
gine system,  where  the  engines  remain 
stationary,  and  the  tillage  implements 
are  drawn  across  the  field  on  a  steel 
cable.  The  advantage  of  the  double  en- 
gine system  over  the  direct  system  may 
be  summed  up  as  follows : 

( 1 )  The  engines  do  not  travel  over  the 
fields,  but  move  along  the  headlands,  and 
so  the  cropping  ground  is  not  damaged 
by  the  heavy  weight  of  the  engines. 

(2)  The  whole  effort  of  the  engine 
goes  directly  into  the  work  of  the  plow, 
whereas  it  has  been  estimated  that  quite 
three  fifths  of  the  power  given  off  by 
the  direct  traction-engine  is  required  to 
propel  itself. 

(3)  With  the  double  engine  system  the 

274 


THE  TRACTION-ENGINE 

land  can  be  tilled  much  sooner  after  rain 
than  by  the  direct  traction  system. 

This  system  is  widely  used  in  Colo- 
rado and  California,  Australia  and 
western  Canada.  But  the  finest  work 
that  has  ever  been  done  in  dry-farming, 
so  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  is  that  which 
has  been  carried  on  during  the  last  six 
years  in  South  Africa  where  the  condi- 
tions are  very  similar  to  those  prevailing 
in  the  Great  Plains  region.  This  method 
has  given  such  remarkable  results  that  it 
is  worthy  of  the  attention  of  all  dry-far- 
mers who  are  interested  in  steam  cultiva- 
tion. In  the  year  1902  a  demonstration 
farm  was  established  at  Vereeniging,  a 
village  situated  on  the  borders  of  the 
Transvaal  and  the  Orange  River  Colony, 
and  placed  under  the  management  of 
Mr.  W.  A.  McLaren,  M.  I.  C.  E.,  an 
engineer  who  has  had  a  life-long  experi- 
ence in  agricultural  operations  in  relation 
275 


DRY-FARMING 

to  steam  cultivation  in  different  parts  of 
the  British  Empire. 

The  soil  of  Vereeniging  is  a  fair 
average  quality,  and  varies  from  a  stiff 
clay  to  a  light,  sandy  loam,  and  the 
amazing  thing  is,  that  in  spite  of  the 
severe  drought  of  the  past  five  years,  the 
Vereeniging  crops  have  not  only  never 
failed,  but  have  shown  an  increased  yield 
every  season  without  the  use  of  manure. 
This  result  McLaren  attributes  to  deep 
plowing,  thorough  tillage,  and  the  use 
of  moisture-saving  fallows.  The  value 
of  those  fallow  lands  was  shown  in  a 
striking  way  last  season  when  the  maize 
or  corn  harvest  ended,  on  August1  26th, 
and  planting  for  the  new  crop  started 
the  very  next  day — or  about  one  month 
ahead  of  the  usual  time  of  seeding.  The 
results  of  these  operations  have  clearly 

1  In  South  Africa  the  seasons  are  the  reverse  of  the 
United  States.  That  is  to  say,  Christmas  comes  in  the 
middle  of  summer,  and  August  in  the  late  winter. 

276 


THE  TRACTION-ENGINE 

demonstrated  that,  under  ordinary  con- 
ditions, the  dry  lands  of  the  Transvaal, 
cultivated  in  a  scientific  manner,  with  the 
double  engine  system  of  steam  tackle, 
in  the  hands  of  skilled  workmen,  will 
successfully  produce  large  crops  of  maize 
in  seasons  of  the  severest  drought. 

At  Vereeniging  the  plowing  tackle 
consists  of  two  engines  with  steel  cables 
450  yards  in  length — a  five  furrow  bal- 
ance plow,  and  a  packer  weighing 
about  two  tons.  This  packer  has  proved 
a  very  valuable  implement  for  securing 
a  mellow  seed-bed.  The  planting  is  done 
by  means  of  a  combined  implement  com- 
prising the  cultivator,  consolidator, 
packer,  sower  and  a  harrow;  the  four 
operations  being  done  simultaneously  by 
this  machine  which  cultivates,  packs, 
seeds,  and  harrows  sixty  acres  per  day. 
The  amount  of  land  that  such  a  steam 
plow  turns  over  is  from  fifteen  to  twenty 


DRY-FARMING 

acres  per  day,  or  from  2500  to  3500 
acres  per  annum  according  to  the  char- 
acter and  condition  of  the  soil.  In  the 
Transvaal,  where  the  deep  stirring  of  the 
land  has  been  found  to  be  so  essential  for 
the  maximum  conservation  of  soil  mois- 
ture, the  double  engine  system  has  in- 
variably given  better  results  than  the 
direct  traction  system ;  and  in  this  colony 
with  steam  tackle,  it  is  possible  to  plow 
practically  every  day  in  the  year— sum- 
mer and  winter. 

This  is  an  ideal  method  of  fitting  the 
land  for  a  dry-farm  crop,  but  unfortu- 
nately the  initial  expense  of  the  outfit— 
$22,500— puts  it  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
ordinary  farmer.  But  a  cooperative  so- 
ciety of  dry-farmers  might  easily  com- 
bine and  purchase  such  tackle.  Treated 
with  care  these  engines  will  give  equal 
satisfaction  at  the  end  of  five,  ten,  or 
even  twenty  years  of  constant  service. 
278 


CHAPTER  X 

DRY-LAND  EXPERIMENTS 

IN  the  first  chapter  of  this  volume  the 
work  of  the  State  experiment  sta- 
tions has  been  noted  and  now  it  may  be 
of  interest  to  touch  upon  the  practical 
aid  and  encouragement  rendered  to  the 
dry-farmer  by  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture at  Washington.  The  operations 
and  experiments  of  the  Department  in 
dry-land  agriculture  come  under  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  and  comprise 
the  following  sections: 

i.  Office  Dry-Land  Agriculture, 
ii.  Office  of  Grain  Investigations, 
in.  Office    of    Western   Agricultural 

Extension. 

iv.  Office  of  Alkali  and  Drought-Re- 
sistant Plant  Breeding. 
279 


DRY-FARMING 

v.  Soil  Physics  Laboratories. 

vi.  Soil  Bacteriological  Laboratories. 

At  the  present  moment  the  main  prob- 
lems in  this  division  lie  along  the  line  of 
soil  management,  cereal  investigations, 
plant  breeding,  soil  moisture  determina- 
tion, meteorological  and  bacteriological 
investigations.  In  passing  it  may  be  men- 
tioned that  there  are  1058  persons  in  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  which  shows 
the  remarkable  growth  of  a  single  section 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Department 
is  doing  much  to  demonstrate  the  best 
methods  of  tillage,  the  necessity  of  or- 
ganization, and  the  production  of  one 
uniform  type  of  grain. 

The  work  of  the  Department  in  dry- 
farming  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with 
the  appointment  of  Mr.  E.  C.  Chilcott  as 
Agriculturist  in  charge  of  Dry-Land  In- 
vestigations in  July,  1905.  Before  com- 
280 


DRY-LAND  EXPERIMENTS 

ing  to  Washington  Mr.  Chilcott  was 
Professor  of  Agriculture  and  Geology  in 
the  South  Dakota  Agricultural  College 
and  had  a  long  and  wide  experience  in 
dry-farming  in  the  Great  Plains  area. 
Under  his  direction  this  work  has  ex- 
tended in  a  remarkable  manner  and 
already  eleven  dry-land  experiment  sta- 
tions have  been  established,  and  several 
more  will  be  started  in  the  course  of  the 
next  year  or  so.  The  area  over  which 
these  operations  extend  is  truly  enormous 
and  may  be  said  to  reach  from  the  Mis- 
sissippi westward  to  the  Sierra  Nevada 
Mountains  in  California  and  to  the  Up- 
lands of  the  Columbia  River  basin;  and 
from  the  Canadian  line  southward  to 
the  Panhandle  of  Texas ;  in  all  a  tract  of 
country  comprising  roughly  one  million 
square  miles.  The  policy  of  the  Depart- 
ment is  to  work  in  cordial  harmony  with 
the  various  State  governments  and  to 
281 


DRY-FARMING 

supplement,  but  not  to  interfere  with, 
any  work  which  may  already  be  in  pro- 
gress. Dry-land  stations  have  now  been 
established  at  the  following  points  in 
conjunction  with  the  various  States: 

In  North  Dakota  at  Wollaston, 
Dickinson  and  Edgeley;  in  South  Da- 
kota at  Bellefourche ;  in  Nebraska  at 
North  Platte;  in  Kansas  at  Hays  and 
Garden  City;  in  Colorado  at  Akron;  in 
Texas  at  Amarillo  and  Dalhart;  in 
Montana  at  Judith  Basin.  Of  these  sta- 
tions four,  Bellefourche,  Akron,  Ama- 
rillo and  Dalhart,  are  entirely  operated 
by  the  National  Department.  To  under- 
stand the  scheme  adopted,  we  may  take 
for  sake  of  illustration  any  one  of  the 
three  North  Dakota  stations.  Here  the 
United  States  affords  co-operative  aid 
by  paying  the  salary  and  traveling  ex- 
penses of  the  official  appointed  to  take 
charge  of  this  work.  Ordinarily,  this  ex- 
282 


DRY-LAND  EXPERIMENTS 

pert  is  a  graduate  of  the  State  Agricul- 
tural College,  is  recommended  by  the 
local  authorities  and  approved  by  the 
Secretary  of  Agriculture.  This  official 
thereupon  becomes  a  civil  servant  in  vir- 
tue of  his  office  in  the  Department  of 
Agriculture.  The  National  Department 
also  aids  the  State  farm  in  the  purchase 
of  any  special  machinery  which  may  be 
necessary  for  the  carrying  out  of  experi- 
ments; as,  for  example,  the  small 
threshing  machine  for  harvesting  the 
grain  on  the  experimental  plots  and  other 
necessary  implements.  It  has  never  been 
the  intention  of  the  Government  to  make 
money  out  of  these  stations.  In  a  word 
they  are  soil  and  plant  laboratories  es- 
tablished for  the  express  purpose  of  aid- 
ing the  dry-farmer.  Touching  results: 
these  stations  were  started  principally  to 
study  the  fundamental  problems  of  crop 
rotation  and  the  application  of  various 
285 


DRY-FARMING 

cultural  methods,  and  although  some  in- 
teresting data  have  been  obtained,  the 
period  since  they  were  established  is  too 
short  to  speak  with  any  certainty  as  to 
the  ultimate  results  likely  to  accrue.  But 
one  thing  is  certain,— in  emphasizing  the 
need  of  better  tillage,  and  the  conserva- 
tion of  moisture  combined  with  fertility 
these  stations  cannot  fail  to  have  a  pro- 
found and  far-reaching  influence. 

Another  branch  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  which  gives  practical  aid  to 
the  dry-land  farmer  is  the  Forest  Service 
under  the  Chief  Forester  Mr.  Gifford 
Pinchot.  This  bureau  gives  assistance  to 
tree-planters  in  the  semi-arid  regions  by 
means  of  correspondence,  publications, 
and  by  the  preparation  of  detailed  plant- 
ing plans  based  on  field  examination. 
The  purpose  of  this  co-operation  is  to 
establish  model  forest  plantations  in 
suitable  localities,  which  will  afford  ob- 
286 


DRY-LAND  EXPERIMENTS 

ject  lessons  in  correct  methods  of  forest 
planting.  In  addition  the  Forest  Service, 
in  co-operation  with  the  State  educational 
institutions,  State  foresters,  etc.,  conducts 
experiments  in  nursery  practice  and  field 
planting  in  seventeen  States.  Three  of 
these  experiments,  located  at  Belle- 
fourche,  South  Dakota,  Akron,  Colo- 
rado, and  Dalhart,  Texas,  are  in  regions 
where  dry-farming  is  extensively  prac- 
tised. Much  useful  information  on 
species  and  cultural  methods  best  adapted 
to  the  several  States  has  been  secured  as  a 
result  of  these  investigations.  Such  in- 
formation, of  course,  is  gladly  furnished 
to  prospective  planters. 

The  semi-arid  plains  of  the  United 
States  are  almost  wholly  lacking  in 
native  timber.  With  the  gradual  settle- 
ment of  this  region,  however,  a  good  deal 
of  planting  has  been  done  for  protection 
against  wind,  for  the  production  of  farm 
287 


DRY-FARMING 

material  and  for  decorative  purposes. 
Hardy,  drought -resistant  trees,  such  as 
honey-locust,  Russian  mulberry,  black 
locust,  green  ash,  hackberry,  bon-elder, 
yellow  pine,  Scotch  pine  and  jack  pine 
have  been  most  frequently  used.  Cotton- 
wood,  silver  maple,  and  Lombardy  poplar 
have  been  planted  where  the  land  hap- 
pens to  be  moist.  It  has  been  clearly 
demonstrated  that  thorough  and  fre- 
quent cultivation  to  form  a  soil- mulch 
and  so  check  evaporation  is  essential  for 
successful  tree-growth  on  the  semi- arid 
plains.  Furthermore,  the  deodar  cedar 
and  coulter  pine  have  been  planted  ex- 
perimentally by  the  Forest  Service  in 
southern  California;  and  although  the 
experiments  have  been  conducted  for  a 
comparatively  short  time,  the  results  show 
that  both  these  trees  are  well  adapted  to 
the  rather  trying  conditions  of  that 
region.  Other  species  which  are  being 
288 


DRY-LAND  EXPERIMENTS 

planted  on  the  National  Forests  in 
regions  of  deficient  rainfall  are  the  yel- 
low pine,  jack  pine,  Douglas  fir,  and 
Engelmann  spruce.  The  growing  of 
eucalypts  for  commercial  purposes  has 
proved  to  be  very  profitable  in  southern 
California  and  many  companies  have 
been  organized  for  the  purpose  of  plant- 
ing these  trees.  They  have  also  been 
planted  in  the  warmer  portions  of  Ari- 
zona and  it  is  probable  that  all  the 
hardier  varieties  of  gums  will  find  a  place 
in  the  near  future  in  the  drier  portions  of 
New  Mexico  and  Texas.  From  this 
brief  sketch  it  will  be  plain  that  a  vast 
amount  of  valuable  work  is  being  done  by 
the  Forest  Service  in  the  interests  of  the 
dry-farmer,  and  further  that  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  is  fully  aware  of  the 
importance  of  tree-planting  on  the  semi- 
arid  plains.  But  to  the  writer  it  has  al- 
ways seemed  a  pity  that  the  Government 
289 


DRY-FARMING 

repealed  the  "Timber  Culture  Act,"1  or, 
as  it'  was  more  popularly  known,  "The 
Tree  Claim,"  for  none  but  a  western 
settler,  wending  his  way  over  the  desolate 
prairie,  can  fully  realize  the  cheering 
welcome  of  a  grove  of  cottonwoods,  never 
failing  guides,  in  storm  and  sunshine,  to 
his  helpmate  and  his  home. 

1This  Act  was  in  force  from  1873  to  1891.  It  enabled 
any  person  to  obtain  160  acres  of  land  —  a  homestead  — 
by  planting  40  acres  of  timber  and  properly  caring  for  the 
same  for  ten  years.  The  number  of  acres  of  timber  was 
finally  reduced  to  10  and  the  period  of  cultivation  to  eight 
years.  The  law  proved  a  failure  owing  to  the  number  of 
frauds  in  connection  with  it  and  also  to  the  lack  of  officials 
to  see  that  the  regulations  were  properly  carried  out. 
Nevertheless,  44,000,000  acres  of  land  were  entered  by 
this  method. 

THE  END 


290 


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